KET - Kentucky Life visits state’s covered bridges, explores story of former slave Margaret Garner, canoes down Little Sandy River, and more

Kentucky Life visits state’s covered bridges, explores story of former slave Margaret Garner, canoes down Little Sandy River, and more

For Release: 2012-01-23 13:29:00

The next edition of Kentucky Life takes a canoe trip down the Little Sandy River in Elliott County; explores the unique architectural features of Kentucky's 13 remaining covered bridges; visits Boone County’s Maplewood Farm, the former home of slave Margaret Garner, and more. The program airs Saturday, Feb. 18 at 8/7 p.m. CT and Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET.

The Little Sandy River runs along the bottom of Laurel Gorge in Elliott County, and on a daylong canoe trip down the river, host Dave Shuffett discovers amazing rock formations, waterfalls and other natural wonders.

Kentucky Life also examines the state’s unique covered bridges. In the 1800s, at the peak of covered bridge construction in America, Kentucky had more than 400 covered bridges. Today, the 13 that remain are are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Next, the program explores the tragic life and legacy of Margaret Garner of Boone County’s Maplewood Farm, a slave whose story was the inspiration for Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. In January 1856, Garner took her children and fled from Maplewood. Her desperate attempt at escape ended in tragedy, and it began a legal controversy that continued for years. In this segment, Kentucky Life looks at the tragic nature and consequences of slavery, and, in this sesquicentennial year of the Civil War, try to shed light on the feelings and beliefs of those for and against slavery during that era.

Finally, this program’s “Our Town” segment features the Washington County town of Springfield.

Kentucky Life is a KET production, produced by Brandon Wickey. Segment producers include Shuffett, John Schroering, Jim Piston and Frank Simkonis.

More information about Kentucky Life, including streaming video, is available at ket.org/kentuckylife. More information about KET programming and education services, as well as how to support KET, can be found at ket.org.

Contact: Abby Malik

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