Kentucky Tourism

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.