Producer: Valerie Trimble
Videographers: Michael Follmer, Prentice Walker
Audio: Thomas Cooper
Editor: Jim Piston

Rare Breed

Mammoth jack donkeys

The first segment in this edition of Kentucky Life is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Steve Aaron, who died in September 2005. A surgeon and surgery professor, he was known for a wide variety of talents and interests, including inventing new surgical instruments and creating computer-manipulated photographic art. The one we talked to him about, though, harkened back to the past. Dr. Aaron continued a Kentucky tradition that can be traced back to Henry Clay by breeding and raising mammoth jack donkeys on his Bullitt County farm.

The lineage of the breed itself can be traced back even further, to a pair of donkeys given to George Washington by the king of Spain. Clay, a previous Kentuckian of wide-ranging interests, introduced the breed to the state and established it as a Kentucky tradition.

Mammoths are the largest donkeys in the world, standing 4'8" or more at the withers, and have extra-long ears to match. They are known for strength and quiet dispositions and are often bred to mares to produce mammoth mules, a particularly sure-footed and tractable variety. Dr. Aaron was known internationally for his involvement with an agricultural project in the Mexican state of Guadalajara, where mammoth mules have become a favored alternative to off-road machinery for harvesting coffee on steep slopes.

For more information:
• National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Kentucky Floral Clock Chapter, 107 Barlow Place, Greenville, KY 42345

Producer: Barbara Deeb
Videographer: David Brinkley
Editor: Cheryl Beckley

Time Is Money

Antique clock appraisals

Antiques Roadshow fans will want to check out our next feature, a visit to an appraisal event conducted by the local chapter of the National Association of Clock and Watch Collectors in Bowling Green. Curious owners brought clocks, watches, and other timepieces to Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Library and Museum to be assessed. While some did not get the good news they had hoped for, one woman learned that a piece she once almost threw away is worth $8,000.

For more information:
• Pickett State Park, Rock Creek Route, Box 174, Jamestown, TN 38556, (615) 879-5821, (888) TN PARKS (867-2757)

Producer: Dave Shuffett
Videographer: Brandon Wickey
Editor: Otis Ballard

South of the Border

Pickett State Park

Down Tennessee way, host Dave Shuffett makes a slight out-of-state detour to visit Pickett State Park and Forest, a 17,000-acre natural wonderland in the Cumberland Mountains, just south of Wayne County, where the highlights include spectacular rock formations, a wealth of natural diversity, and trout fishing in Arch Lake.

Pickett’s attractions also include the human-made. Many of its buildings and trails—and even the lakeside beach—were built by the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. The woods and numerous caves also preserve evidence of ancient Native American inhabitants.

The park offers cabins and chalets for rent in addition to campsites. A group campsite with fully equipped kitchen can accommodate up to 144. Motorboats are not allowed, but canoes and kayaks can be rented. And visitors seeking to get even farther away from it all will find plenty of options in the adjacent Big South Fork National Recreation Area.

For more information:
• Glasgow Highland Games, 119 E. Main St., Glasgow, KY 42141, (270) 651-3141

Producer, videographer, editor: Cheryl Beckley

Calling All Lads and Lasses

The Glasgow Highland Games

Each spring, the clans gather in Glasgow—Kentucky—for a celebration of all things Scottish. Plaids and kilts are everywhere, and the sound of bagpipes fills the air (along with other varieties of Celtic music). The event is the Glasgow Highland Games, held the last weekend of May or the first weekend of June at Barren River Lake State Resort Park in Barren County.

The games are also, as the name implies, a sporting event. World-class athletes gather to compete in a variety of traditional Scottish competitions, many of which involve throwing or tossing something: a 19-foot pole known as a caber, a 25-pound sheaf of hay, a stone much like the modern shotput, or a 56-pound weight.

This visit to the 2005 games was produced by the crew at Western Kentucky University. Kentucky Life previously visited the Glasgow Highland Games, 2001 edition, to follow the adventures of Louisville bagpiper Karen McKenzie. That segment is in Program 801.