| Program 1201 |  |
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Producer, videographer: Dave Shuffett |
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A Special Baby Buffalo Crossing’s white calf A few times a century, a white buffalo calf is born. This rare occurrence is of special significance to the Lakota Sioux, whose mythology tells of a figure named White Buffalo Woman who taught the people how to live and gave them the sacred pipe at the center of their most important ceremonies. The birth of a white buffalo signifies a time of great spiritual significance and renewed unity among the people. So when a white calf was born at Shelby County’s Buffalo Crossing Fun Ranch on June 3, 2005, she immediately became a center of attention across the country. Lakota spiritual leader Steve McCullough and the Salt Creek Sun Dancers traveled to Kentucky to conduct a naming ceremony in which the new baby was given the name Cante Pejuta, or Medicine Heart. Not an albino but a rare white-haired variation, Medicine Heart has brown eyes. Even beyond her rarity, she is special to the people at the ranch for another reason: She’s a granddaughter of Buffalo Crossing’s former superstar, a magnificent sire named Chief Joe who was killed by lightning in September 2003. Kentucky Life previously visited Buffalo Crossing in Program 923. A working livestock ranch located between Shelbyville and Bagdad, it features both family activities and a restaurant specializing in buffalo meat. That fate, however, will be spared Medicine Heart. Though the Lakota once sacrificed white calves as an especially meaningful gift to the spirits, more recent tradition calls for preserving and honoring them. |
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Producer: Valerie Trimble |
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Return to the Roots Prater’s Fort While many small towns strive to modernize, part of downtown Salyersville has been deliberately reverted to look much the way it did when the first permanent settlement took root there around 1800. Prater’s Fort, named for the frontier station that represented European settlers’ first toehold in what is now Magoffin County, is a collection of original log cabins gathered from around Eastern Kentucky and re-erected to form a small village. The re-created pioneer town was a project of the Magoffin County Historical Society. It’s a living educational exhibit where reenactors, including members of the Magoffin Muzzleloaders, give visitors an idea of what life was like in these hills during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. As Historical Society President Todd Preston explains to host Dave Shuffett on his visit, it’s also meant to attract tourists traveling the Mountain Parkway, which ends at Salyersville. The society financed the creation of Prater’s Fort through the sale of genealogical books focusing on pioneer families from the county. One of the featured families is honored each year at a Founder’s Day celebration during Labor Day weekend. |
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Producer: Dave Shuffett |
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Growing Her Own Sheep farmer and weaver Tammy Cothran Dave heads cross-state for this week’s final segment: a demonstration of the time-honored art of sheep shearing in Calloway County. Doing the demonstrating is Tammy Cothran, a weaver who prefers to grow her own raw material. Tammy raises Shetland sheep, gathers their wool, and spins it into beautiful clothing and other products. Shetlands are a small, calm, and hardy breed who are sometimes known to wag their tails when petted. They are unusual among domestic sheep because they come in a wide variety of colors and patterns, from white to greys and browns to black. The various patterns are still designated by the names given to them by the Shetland Islanders who developed the breed. A former Georgian, Tammy moved to rural Western Kentucky when the ever-expanding suburbs of Atlanta became inhospitable to sheep ranching. |
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On Location Boyd Orchard Dave hosts this edition from Boyd Orchard, a you-pick-it farm offering strawberries, pumpkins, and apples. |
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