For more information:
• Falls of the Ohio State Park, 201 West Riverside Dr., Clarksville, IN 47129, (812) 280-9970

Producer, videographer: Treg Ward
Editor: Dan Taulbee

Fossils and More

The Falls of the Ohio

When settlers headed west by boat in the 18th century, they found only one navigational obstacle along the 981-mile length of the Ohio River: a 26-foot drop in the water level over a stretch of two miles known as the Falls of the Ohio. Hearing the roar of the whitewater ahead, travelers would disembark and carry their boats past the falls. This practice of “portaging” led to the christening of the spot as Portland, which today is a part of Louisville.

Nowadays, of course, nobody has to get out and walk, since dams have tamed the falls to let boats safely through. But the riverfront area is still worth a stop. Preserved as a wildlife refuge, the Falls of the Ohio park also shelters a wide variety of fossils dating from the Ice Age.

The Falls of the Ohio has also been the subject of a KET Electronic Field Trip. That web site has educational materials, background information, and lots of photos.

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For more information:
• National Scouting Museum and Youth and Family Research Center, Boy Scouts of America, S505, 1329 West Walnut Hill Lane, Irving, TX 75038, (800) 303-3047

Producer, videographer, editor: David Brinkley

Rockwell and the Scouts in Murray

The National Scouting Museum

Calling all former Cubs and Eagles! This segment features a trip to Murray in far western Kentucky to see exhibits on the history and traditions of Scouting, including a large collection of original Norman Rockwell paintings on the subject. The Boy Scouts of America commissioned 60 works from the renowned illustrator, known for his Saturday Evening Post covers. Meticulous in their attention to accurate detail, these warm and appealing works were also wonderful advertising for Scouting.

This Kentucky Life visit was taped in the mid-1990s. Since then, the National Scouting Museum has been relocated to Texas.

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Producer, videographer: Gale Worth

A Kentucky Ghost Town

Creelsboro

In the days when southern Kentucky’s main highways were its rivers (and thanks to an oil boom in the 1920s), the port of Creelsboro in Russell County was once a bustling trade center. One legendary shoe merchant once sold 200 pairs there in a single afternoon. But today the distant bark of a hound or the crow of a rooster are the only sounds to be heard in this ghost town.

Watch This Story (6:58)