For more information:
• Kentucky Historical Society, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601, (502) 564-1792

Producer: Janet Whitaker
Videographer: Lee Delaney
Audio: Alan Owens
Editor: Otis Ballard

Who Are Those Guys?

Kentucky state symbols

Daniel Boone and Henry Clay? No, although that’s often what people guess. But as Ron Bryant of the Kentucky Historical Society explains in this segment, the two gentlemen shaking hands on Kentucky’s state seal are not modeled on any particular historical figures. Instead, they are meant to represent classes of people—rural and urban, agrarian and mercantile—and their brotherly greeting is an acting out of the state motto: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.”

Bryant has plenty of other tidbits to offer as he leads a tour of the historical society’s headquarters in Frankfort. Why is Kentucky a commonwealth and not a state? How and when did “My Old Kentucky Home” become the state song? What’s the official state fossil? And who designed that seal, anyway?

For more information:
• Port Oliver Yacht Club, P.O. Box 1472, Bowling Green, KY 42102

Producer, editor: Cheryl Beckley
Videographers: Cheryl Beckley, Ryan Hardison, Justin Hardison, and Nathan Lawrence

Down to the Lake in Boats

The Great Minnow Regatta

It’s not exactly the Americas Cup, but it’s still an exhilarating way to spend a summer day. Visit the members of the Port Oliver Yacht Club and catch a little of the action in the Great Minnow Regatta, held each year on southcentral Kentucky’s Barren River Lake. Race chair Bill Klarer, Commodore Phillip Huddleston, and Margaret Ryan Huddleston get things ship-shape while explaining the lure of the wind in your sails.

Producer, videographer: David Brinkley

Life’s a Drag

Drag racer/businessman Billy Harper

As our 1999 profile demonstrates, kids think Billy Harper is pretty cool. After all, the Paducah businessman (president of Harper Industries, Inc.) is also a professional drag racer, competing in the Pro Mod division of the International Hot Road Association. Using his futuristic race car as a drawing card, he often talks to groups of schoolchildren about how he turned his passion for cars into a lifetime pursuit—and about how a good education can help them pursue their dreams for the future.

These days, Harper has a pretty big dream for his own future: He’s challenging incumbent Ernie Fletcher in the 2007 Republican gubernatorial primary.