I've been working on
some exciting projects lately. Have finished an article on Happy Chandler
for Kentucky Humanities Magazine that will appear in their spring Kentucky
sports issue. It will also be available soon in booklet form from me for
$6. Very proud of this one. Hope my readers will enjoy reading it
as much as I enjoyed writing it. Will speak about it in Columbia at
Lindsey Wilson College on March 21 and
again in Mayfield at the Library on March 23.
As many of you know,
besides writing and story telling my retirement days also include helping
others promote their dreams of rebuilding our eastern Kentucky economy by
working for the Promise Zone. I'm not supposed to write grants for anyone
but I offer technical grant writing support for many projects. One of
those projects is to develop a tourism trail from Chillicothe, Ohio to the
Cumberland Gap-on what was the Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail.
My path will also move east from Manchester through Hazard to Pikeville to
incorporate some eastern Kentucky feud stories also for the benefit of
tourism. Another project involves finding a subject for a group of
excellent photographers and video folks to use to tell one story that is
important for Kentucky that will be visually attractive for people
everywhere.
So, I'm announcing that
this past week we found the story. It is a big story--an important
story--and it is right in the middle of my proposed tourism trail. I
couldn't be happier that these two projects are actually running
together. Each will help the other to make our economy grow.
The big news is that a wonderful young man from Jackson named Stephen Bowling
has identified over 900 arches and windows from Natural Bridge down into Leslie
and Perry Counties. We now have identified more of these geologic
formations than has Utah--which was the leader nationally.
So--big news--Kentucky tourism which benefits from 100,000 visitors to Natural
Bridge per year can now count on those numbers increasing greatly. A
window is an opening in solid rock of from one to three feet across. An
arch is an opening larger than three feet across. Obviously, Natural
Bridge is the largest and most majestic but hikers, wild life lovers,
naturalist and environmentalist enjoy viewing these sites themselves and this
find will enable them to do so on a much larger scale than anywhere else n the
country.
Business people
pride themselves on the fact that Kentucky is within a days drive for 60
% of the U.S. population which is why Toyoda and so many other companies have
located in our state. This fact will also make it possible for a great
many new tourists to potentially visit our newly discovered
rock formations. Meanwhile,our photographer and video team
members are excited about following Stephen on foot and by drone to
provide pictures with which to tell this story as it unfolds over the next two
years.
If you want more
information about this project feel free to contact me for the general stuff or
Stephen for the technical stuff. He works in Jackson as the Breathitt
County Librarian and also as the Vice Mayor of Jackson, Kentucky. Now you
know more about some of the exciting projects I get to work on here
in eastern Kentucky Contact me at richard.crowe@ymail.com. Contact Stephen at breathitt@bellsouth.net.
