Reflections On Rereading "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" by John Fox, Jr.

The first time I read this book must have been at least forty or fifty years ago, maybe even longer. I didn't like it then and I like it even less now. Yes, John Fox, Jr. could write well. But that is not the real issue(s) which I have with this book. It is often described as an Appalachian book since it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It is also sometimes described as a Civil War novel which is a bit more accurate. But the majority of the book is not about the Civil War, perhaps less than 20%. That is enough to say about my doubts about it being a Civil War novel. It is most frequently described as an Appalachian Novel and has been for nearly all of the 120+ years since it was published in 1903. I disupte the idea that it can be called an Appalachian novel. Yes, it is set primarily in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky in a fictional area that is roughly near the headwaters of the Kentucky River, perhaps in the region of the current Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County. Yes, many of its characters, including the protagonist Chad Bufford are natives of Appalachian Kentucky. But John Fox, Jr. was not remotely an Appalachian man. He grew up and lived much of his life in the area in and around Lexington, Kentucky, which is not remotely a part of Appalachia. It is the heart of the Bluegrass and Central Kentucky. Fox later moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, which is in Appalachia. Upon his death there, he was returned to Bourbon County Kentucky for burial in a family graveyard. Bourbon County is very much in the heart of Central Kentucky. For those who might have a tendency to make the claim that if Fox spent time in Appalachia and lived there at his death it made him an Appalachian, I would ask you if you believed that if you moved to Watts in Los Angeles, California, would it make you either African American or Hispanic? You know absolutely that it would not. Neither did living in Appalachia make John Fox, Jr. an Appalachian. As for the novel itself, I believe, based on my life and experiences as a native Appalachian with a strong base of knowledge and expertise in Appalachian Culture, that "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is actually an anti-Appalachian novel. Throughout the novel, Fox will sometimes make a few positive comments about the people of the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky and will, almost immediately, follow those postive comments with very negative statements, stereotypes, and defamations. Those negative descriptors he resorted to include poverty, ignorance, illiteracy, feuding, and a wide variety of other defamatory remarks. The Encyclopedia Virginia website describes the novel as a local color novel which is more accurate than the claim that it is Appalachian. The California Learning Resource Network website describes local color as being: Local color is a literary term that refers to the unique cultural, regional, or social characteristics that are often used to describe a particular place, community, or group of people. Sometimes "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is described as being a coming of age novel which is also more accurate than saying it is Appalachian. The novel has Chad Buford, the teenage protagonist, making his first trip to Frankfort, Kentucky, as part of a log floating operation down the Kentucky River. When he arrives in Frankfort with his friends he is soon hopelessly lost in "the big city" and forced to try to make his own way back to the mountains. This type of description of a mountain boy becoming lost on his first trip to town is a typical case of portraying native Appalachians as being inept in urban areas and can be found in hundreds of cheap, tawdry novels today, many of whose authors may well have learned the trick from Fox's work. Miraculously, Chad is rescued by Major Buford who turns out to be a relative who suspects their kinship and takes the boy in with the unspoken idea that if he can prove the relationship he will have the boy educated and made into a gentleman. As the novel progresses, that is exactly what does happen. Major Buford takes him in, he falls in love with the daughter of a general who at least initially either belittles or ignores him for his coonskin cap and backward mountain ways. Eventually, Chad becomes friends with the girl, her two brothers and the entire family of General Dean. Then the Civil War intervenes and the novel turns toward the conflicts between family members and neighbors in both Central Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky. One of General Dean's sons joins the Confederate Army and the other, along with Chad Buford, joins the Union Army. In the mountains, two brothers, both giants, Daws Dillon and Tad Dillon, who also join opposite sides of the war and come to hate each other totally. It is an interesting point that Fox chose to create two giant brothers in the novel since a very famous giant, Martin Van Buren Bates, was born in Letcher County Kentucky, not far from Kingdom Come in Harlan County. Bates lived from 1837 to 1919, fought in the Civil War at 7 feet 9 inches and later toured the world as a sideshow act. It is even possible that Fox met Bates during his time traveling in the mountains to buy land and mineral rights from the locals. I have little doubt that the Dillon boys are both based on Martin Van Buren Bates. The Civil War ends and Chad Buford goes to visit his friends in the mountains who include Melissa Turner, a young woman whom Chad grew up with and who saved his life during the Civil War by misleading Rebel sympathizers who were attempting to waylay and kill Chad. As a result of her winter trek through the mountains to save Chad, Melissa becomes ill and dies. Upon Chad's return to the mountains, Melissa is dead and he doesn't even stay for her funeral before returning to Central Kentucky and then on to an unwritten life wandering the country. This failure to attend the funeral of a close friend is a very basic misstatement of behavior by any native Appalachian, especially in 1865. Another related misrepresentation of life in the time of the novel describes Major Dean's disinterment of Chad's parents to transport their bodies for reburial on his Central Kentucky farm with his relatives. At the time of the novel, nothing was considered more sacred in Appalachian Culture than the graves of the dead. This is just one of many misrepresentations of the Appalachian lifestyle in the middle nineteenth century. While "The Litte Shepherd of Kingdom Come" is an entertaining novel and written in a professional literary manner, it is an insult to every Appalachian who ever lived and loved his/her culture and homeland. If you choose to read it, paperback copies can be found all over the nation. But read it with a very jaundiced eye. It is not what it is often misrepresented to be.

Kingdom Come State Park--July 25, 2019

Kingdom Come State Park is the highest elevation state park in Kentucky and one of the most unique with respect to the natural features it holds.  It is just outside Cumberland, Kentucky, in Harlan County.  My wife and I visited the park on our long day trip on July 25, 2019, and I hiked for about an hour on an old road which passes from the park toward Whitesburg, Kentucky, fourteen miles away.  The one lane gravel and blacktop road extends 38 miles along the crest of Pine Mountain from Whitesburg to Harlan. It is sometimes known as the Little Shepherd Trail, a name taken from the book "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come" by John Fox, Jr.  The road crosses through the park near the summit of Pine Mountain. The great majority of the road lies outside the boundaries of the park on what I suspect is primarily corporate land being held by coal and timber companies.  Only about a mile of the road lies within the park boundaries.  But there are rumors of an attempt by the Kentucky Parks system to use the road as part of a longitudinal park which would run from Harlan to the Breaks of the Mountains Interstate Park on the Virginia border in Pike County.  Kingdom Come State Park allows vehicular, but not ATV, traffic on the road inside the park.  Outside the boundaries of the park, it is my understanding that ATV's, dirt bikes, horses, and vehicles all travel the trail/road which is an absolute shame.  Dirt bikes and ATV's do nothing except destroy flora and fauna and severely disturb larger animals.  It is my considered opinion that those who use such vehicles to "see" the mountains and parks anywhere are simply too lazy to hike on foot, too uncaring of wildlife to stop disturbing them, and too unaware of the importance of the flora to stop destroying it.  But Harlan county has catered to ATV and dirt bike riders in order to gain more tourism dollars and have actually developed what they call the Off Road Adventure Area for such vehicles on abandoned strip mined land.  Since that land has already been mutilated, destroyed, and left a wasteland by the coal companies, in most cases, I have to admit that this ATV "adventure area" is the best answer for the problem.  It would be a wonderful  thing if all ATV and dirt bike riders stay off all other land in the mountains  and let the flora survive and the wildlife live in peace.  

Path To Kingdom Come Overlook--Photo by Trip Advisor

Now to my hike which was in the heart of bear country.  The Little Shepherd Trail, as it is sometimes called, does allow vehicular traffic and during the hour I was on it I did see three cars as I recall.  They were all driving slowly and safely. I probably traveled about a mile each inside the park and outside the park boundaries since I did a straight hike and a round trip. The trail begins at an overlook which does have protective railing, bear resistant garbage cans, and a small parking area.  I have to say that the microchip in my camera had run out of storage space during my long day trip, and I did not take any photographs on the hike.  I will try to post a few here from the public domain.  This overlook allows you to see the valley below over a portion which extends probably two or three miles.  It is a fabulous view but, since I was married at the main overlook of the New River Gorge National Park, I know it is not the best overlook you will ever see.  Also, since my wife is in a wheelchair, handicapped accessibility is important to us and the path to the overlook is not accessible.  It has several steps on a stone path leading to it.  There is also a small piece of land to the right of this path which could be easily converted to wheelchair accessibility with a bit of leveling and stone work. But for now that possible wheelchair route to the overlook is blocked by tree roots, rocks, and one tree which would make it too narrow without some effort to widen it.

Kingdom Come Overlook--Photo by Harlan County Trails

The hike was in the heart of bear country and I was mildly apprehensive about the possibility of contacting a black bear.  But during my entire hour long hike of perhaps 3 to 4 miles round trip, I saw absolutely no wildlife other than a few butterflies and mosquitoes.  I saw no bear, elk, deer, coyote, coon, bobcat, possum, skunk, rabbit, or squirrel, and the area was one where I had thought I would see a few animals.  But do not take this as a blanket statement that no wildlife are in the trail area.  It was a hot day and I hiked in mid-afternoon when many animals might have been laying up in the shade between their morning and afternoon feeding periods.  The trail is nearly one hundred percent shaded so in cool weather you probably need long sleeves or a jacket. There is quite a bit of uphill and downhill along the trail and they can be fairly steep.  I would rate the difficulty of this trail as moderate due to the grades even though it is along an old highway.

The park also has a small man made lake which allows fishing and paddle boating with compliance to the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Regulations.  There are also a fourteen other short hiking trails inside the park with none being longer than a mile.  There is also a multi-use amphitheater at the base of Raven Rock which we did not see due to our intense schedule for the day.  Overnight primitive camping is allowed in designated areas with a fee. According to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife "as part of the Fishing in the Neighborhoods (FINS) program, this lake is regularly stocked with catchable-size catfish up to four times annually. Additionally, this lake is stocked with rainbow trout in the spring and fall. Largemouth bass and sunfish are regularly sampled and stocked if necessary". The park does not have a lodge or restaurant and that is a shame.  But the park is well worth a visit especially if you like to hike, bird watch, or fish.