For more information:
• Skydive Kentucky, 5878 Columbia Hwy., Greensburg, KY 42743, (270) 723-3587

Producer, editor: Cheryl Beckley
Videographers: Cheryl Beckley, David Brinkley, Ryan Hardison, Jim Moore

A Parachute Built for Two

Tandem skydiving

Participants in beginning skydiving classes held at the Green County Sport Parachute Center of Kentucky get an extra “lifeline”: Each first-timer is firmly attached to an experienced skydiver. That makes two heads to remember crucial details like which cord to pull when ... and makes it possible for many more people to take the leap.

The Sport Parachute Center is headquartered in Greensburg, though the jumps take place across the line in (or actually above) Nelson County.

Producer: Joy Flynn
Videographer: Darin Carr
Editor: Dan Taulbee

Art in Steel and Glass

Stained-glass artist Brian Weidlich

Next, Kentucky Life visits Lexington artist Brian Weidlich. An architect by training, Weidlich breaks out of architectural boundaries in his more personal work. Using the traditional materials of steel and stained glass, he creates stunning—and very untraditional—abstract sculptures.

For more information:
• Land Between the Lakes Association, 345 Maintenance Rd., Golden Pond, KY 42211, (800) 455-5897

Producer, videographer: Treg Ward
Editor: Dan Taulbee

Between the Rivers

The Land Between the Lakes, before the lakes

Before it was the Land Between the Lakes, it was the Land Between the Rivers—a narrow, 40-mile-long strip of fertile wooded land bounded by the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. First settled in the late 18th century, it had been a center of iron production; the site of a battle near Dover, TN that helped change the course of the Civil War; and, during Prohibition, the source of much of the high-quality moonshine whiskey sold in the speakeasies of the Midwest.

Today, it’s a national recreation area, beloved by hikers, birders, and off-road vehicle enthusiasts, with no permanent residents. The transition was the result of two massive flood-control and energy-production projects: the Tennessee Valley Authority’s impoundment of the Tennessee in 1944 to create Kentucky Lake, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ damming of the Cumberland in 1965 to form Lake Barkley. The latter engineers also built a canal linking the northern ends of the two lakes, making the system as a whole one of the largest man-made bodies of water in North America.

When the TVA opened its office in the town of Golden Pond, KY in the 1960s, about 2,500 people lived in the Land Between the Lakes. The last one had moved away by the early ’70s. In this segment, three former residents—William Miller, Donnie Holland, and Marilyn Cassity—remind us of the rich human history of a region now largely given back to nature.