Greenwood2
“Kentucky State Parks—The Nation’s Finest.” It’s more than just a slogan; Kentucky has more resort parks than any other state in the nation. Becoming a National Park in July of 1941, Mammoth Cave [off Interstate 65], with 336+ miles of mapped passages, is the world's longest cave at 379 feet deep and containing at least 5 levels of passages. In fact it is so long that if the second and third longest caves in the world were joined together, Mammoth Cave would still be the planet's longest cave and have nearly 100 miles left over. It is second only to Niagara Falls as the most popular tourist attraction in the US .
Benjamin Logan
Southern Speak
In 1893, Happy Birthday to You, probably the best-known song in the world, was written by two Louisville sisters, Mildred and Patricia Hill.
No matter the position on politics, geography, social issues, religion; there’s one issue that is almost guaranteed to divide Kentuckians: In college basketball, are you a ‘Cats (University of Kentucky Wildcats) or Cards (University of Louisville Cardinals) fan? Coaches on both sides have remarked, “It’s just another game.” Just another game? Perish the thought. In the book, Blue Yonder, its author, Lonnie Wheeler, remarks that while others around the country approach basketball seriously, Kentuckians “take it personally.” [Who’s heard of “The Big Blue Nation”?]
Whatever the date on the calendar, it’s like “March Madness” when these two powerhouses square off. (Who turned the TV on, then turned the sound down so they could listen to UK broadcasters Cawood Ledford and Ralph Hacker call the game on radio?)
But a name generally unknown or mentioned only in passing is that of frontiersman Benjamin Logan.
Daniel Boone had the better press agent.
One of the first of a handful of settlements in (what was then called) Kentucky County, Virginia was Logan’s Fort. The first paths blazed through the wilderness in central Kentucky were "traces", notches cut in trees to mark the way.
Benjamin Logan, a Virginian, was responsible for the trace that bore his name. He had come through the mountains with Daniel Boone but went west while Boone went north to found Boonesboro.
In 1777, the “year of he bloody sevens,” Logan’s Fort survived the territory’s longest siege (53 days) by Indian tribes in Kentucky (known in legend and lore as “the dark and bloody ground”. There’s no native Indian word for “the dark and bloody ground”). At Logan’s Fort (Logan's Station), Benjamin Logan, using a cotton bale for cover, rescued guard Burr Harrison, seriously wounded in an Indian attack; one of Harrison’s compatriots, William Hudson, had been killed and scalped. St. Asaph’s (named for a Welsh saint) became the “town” at Logan’s Fort (present-day Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky. The tiny fort was known as a "standing fort" and it is said the transformation of this into "Stanford" gives the city its present name. Stanford is the county seat of Lincoln County, Kentucky).
An archaeological dig in 1997, A Report on the Human Burial Recovered from Logan's Fort (15LI95), Lincoln County, Kentucky by Nicholas P. Herrmann, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, confirmed the existence of Logan’s Fort and conditions of the death of Hudson, who suffered “cranial trauma,” associated with scalping. “The Logan’s Fort burial represents one of the earliest Euro-American Kentuckians. As such, these remains provide a unique perspective of Kentucky’s frontier history. Although a solitary burial, the individual does furnish a wealth of information concerning the hardships and difficulties faced by the early settlers. The burial represents a young adult male whose life ended violently, as indicated by the cut marks on the cranium.”
Born in Augusta County, Virginia in 1743, Logan in 1775 began building a cabin and the subsequent fort that would bear his name, completing it in early 1777. Tired of the daily trek from Harrodsburg and the safety of James Harrod’s fort, Logan opted to build another, moving his wife, Ann Montgomery, and his family to the new fort. Logan’s men later aided settlers in breaking the siege at Boonesboro.
Instrumental in the statehood conventions, and Kentucky’s organization into statehood, Logan later served in the General Assembly as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.
Settling in roughly the same time and place as Daniel Boone, Logan has been pretty much relegated to a historical footnote.
Dull knife,
“You couldn’t cut hot butter with that thing.”
“Take your time,”
"Don't hurry on my account.”
[alternate] “Take your time…but do hurry.”
Comprehension,
"Don't ya see?"
or
"Don't ya know?"
Out of stock (store),
“You’re out? Well, if I didn’t have any, I’d sure charge a lot less.”
Odd,
"That just ain't right."
Go faster,
“Hurry up! We ain’t got all the time in the world.”
Killed instantly,
“That pipe come loose, swung down, hit her in the head and killed (kilt) her graveyard dead right away.”
Unreadable handwriting,
“What the Hell is all this chicken scratch?”
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One of the best sites on the web generally covering all things Southern: USADEEPSOUTH |
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All original artwork in The Blue Mud Chronicles is by Jeffrey Unthank. See more of his work at:
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Blue Mud is now available at its
author page at Booklocker (best customer service) and as a Print-on-Demand [POD]
book online through Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble and
Target
Do you know what your cat’s saying?
Feline Journal
