Photo Courtesy of The Kentucky Library, WKU.

At its height, Kyrock, Kentucky was the largest producer of natural rock asphalt in the country, an industry that boomed with the invention and wide-spread use of the automobile in the early part of the twentieth century due to the material’s ability to withstand elemental stress as a road-building material. The name given to the product found in abundance in Edmonson, Grayson, & Hart counties region of Kentucky was Kentucky rock asphalt. The Kyrock Company, founded in 1917, marketed their natural rock asphalt as “Kyrock” and sustained production for over forty years in the undulating terrain of Edmonson County, Kentucky. The company not only provided housing for its employees, but put forth funds to build an entire community, consisting of a several community camps, a church, recreational facilities, a commissary, schools, a pump house and other facilities and structures required to sustain the roughly 2,000 people that inhabited the area. The company itself had a number of operating facilities, from offices to quarries scattered throughout the Edmonson County area, shipping facilities in Bowling Green and a headquarters in Lousiville. The company operated through the depression and great wars and didn’t stop producing Kyrock until the demand for natural rock asphalt plummeted in the late forties and fifties. It wasn’t until the invention of hot mix and other more economical road surfacing materials that the company saw this decline, whereas the directors saw no other option than to liquidate the company in 1958. All that remains now of a once booming town are a handful of foundations, a few industrial and residential structures, and the memories of people who lived at Kyrock and its surrounding hamlets. 

I began my research with a book that was published in 2010, called “Kyrock Kentucky” and eventually supplemented that information with manuscripts housed at the Kentucky Library at WKU. In addition to this, some information was gathered from the Historic Chapter of the Kentucky State Archaeological Plan in regard to industrialization and the development of the automobile and roads in Kentucky. An interview of the property owner who maintains the original Kyrock parcels was reviewed and an interview was conducted with the publisher of the 2010 book, Kyrock, Kentucky. 

Field work has been performed in conjunction with a property owner who owns land that contains many of the original Kyrock parcels, to document sites located on his property. Out of at least 3 known sites, (the Kyrock Methodist Episcopal Church site, the Kyrock Sweet Springs site, and the Carmichael site) and analyzed an interview of the property owner to gather information about Kyrock and the various sites located on his property. During several trips to the Kyrock area, my mentor, a fellow student and I have been able to successfully document two of the three aforementioned sites located on the property. 

Photo Courtesy of The Kentucky Library, WKU.

The Kyrock Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1925 as pursuant to an order from the Kentucky Rock Asphalt Company board of directors in Louisville, KY for sum of the general wellbeing of the Kyrock community and surrounding vicinity. The church was, for the larger part of the company’s existence, the main gathering place and community center for Kyrock and its surrounding hamlets. However, as the company declined, so did the church. The building itself was in such a rapid state of decline that, by around 1954, the church was abandoned and materials were used in the creation of the current Kyrock Baptist Church, located about a mile north east on the current Kyrock Road. All that remains of the once booming hub of the Kyrock community are the solid concrete foundation blocks, a few brick and window fragments, two metal poles that formerly held stairs, and an accumulation of historic carvings on the solid rock outcropping on which the church was built. Field work in the form of reconnaissance survey has been conducted at the site by my mentor, a fellow student, and myself to document the remains of a once booming hub of the Kyrock community. 

The Sweet Springs site is located east of (name removed) Creek; a permanent stream that was used for various community and company activities. The site was documented using the same reconnaissance survey methods utilized in field work conducted at the Kyrock Methodist Episcopal Church site. Though some of the people living in the area during the community camps supplied by the Kyrock Company obtained their water from wells, the Kyrock Sweet Springs site was once one of the main water sources for the whole community and the company.  The site continued to be used as a water source for people in the area even after the Kyrock Company closed and was likely used as a water source for people living in the area prior to the founding of the company in 1917. 

The Carmichael House is a historic standing structure that was built around 1926-1927 as a residence for the superintendent of operations at the Kyrock Company, Mr. Henry St. George Tucker Carmichael and his family. At the time, the residence was the cream-de-la-cream of its type, constructed of the finest materials available. Amenities included indoor plumbing, complete with hot running water, operating toilets, large closets, porch areas with beautiful views, and electricity supplied by the Kyrock Company. At the time and in the same geographic location, houses were typically of frame construction with thin clapboard siding and though some of the company homes were supplied with electricity, most did not have running water and toilets were simply unheard of.  A majority of the lumber is California Redwood and was imported by rail from the western part of the country, shipped to Bowling Green and hauled via barge on the Barren, Green, and Nolin Rivers to the site of construction. The house has been completely remodeled and is in wonderful condition. There are several archaeological sites located in close proximity to the Carmichael house and further archaeological investigation is needed to fully document these sites. 

Conclusions drawn from the literature review and field work conducted at the three sites establish that the Kyrock area is eligible for a national register of historic places nomination as a historic district. However, as new sites are being discovered and documented, more work will need to be conducted to finalize the nomination for submission. 

(Disclaimer:  The names of the two other people participating in the Kyrock, Kentucky Archaeology Project (my mentor and a fellow student) are omitted from this paper for security reasons. This paper is an original paper written by John B. LeSieur and is to be used solely for purposes of this blog. This is not a formal presentation nor a final publication. Information used to construct this paper might be used in the future for presentations on the Kyrock, Kentucky Archaeological Project.) 

I love Colorado. I almost slapped myself last year because I drove right by Mesa Verde National Park and didn't stop! So this year, I decided to make a little day trip out of it. Had a really cool time. Took a nice little hike to a petroglyph panel, talked with several other travelers from Vermont and Pennsylvania, and got to see the infamous Cliff Palace, one of the many Anasazi cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde National Park. After leaving, I stayed in a nice little town called Ouray, settled in a nice little mountain pass. It was so weird to look up and see a giant cloud looming over the town and realize that it was actually a mountain! :P The town strip there is cool-lots of neato gift shops and a brewery, where I stopped to have a stout and BBQ, as recommended by the bartender. After a nice walk back to the hotel, I noticed there was a mule deer munching on grass right next to my car (which was funny because I had seen it earlier and thought it was a yard ornament...) So I got some bread out of the car and ended up feeding the deer. It was amazing. The thing was as big as me and before I knew it, another guy (with a much larger set of antlers) walked up, wanting in on the feast. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life...yes, I know they were just deer, but they were wild animals, and they licked my fingers. :) Check out the pictures and video below (it was dark and a bit hard to see, but I think you can make it out...)

Signity sign sign.

Tunnelly-tunnel.

Some Anasazi pottery in the Mesa Verde Museum. From the parks brochure; "These were very accomplished potters, making vessels of many kinds including pots, bowls, canteens, ladles, jars, and mugs. Corrugated ware was used mostly for cooking and storage, while the elaborately decorated, smooth-surfaced black-on-white wares may have had both ceremonial and everyday uses. Women were probably the potters. Designs tended to be personal and local and most likely were passed down from mother to daughter. Design elements changed slowly, a characteristic that helps archaeologists and modern descendants date and possibly tack the location of early populations."

More pottery.

Nice little stairway on the hike to pictograph point (a misnomer, since they are actually petroglyphs.)

Those are stone tool marks, probably used for sharpening axes and other tools. From the parks brochure, " Ancestral Puebloans used all available materials, with no metals. From locally available trees, plants, animals and stone the made tools for grinding, cutting, pounding, chopping, scraping, perforating, polishing, and weaving. They used the diffing stick for farming, stone axe for clearing land, bow and arrow for hunting, and sharpened stones for cutting. They ground corn with the metate and mano and made wooden spindle whorls for weaving. From bone the fashioned awls for sweing and scrapers for working animal hides. Other than the mano and metate, most stone tools were made from stream cobbles, not the soft, cliff sandstone." That was used for sharpening. :P

Petroglyph panel at pictograph point in the park. From the trail guide, "Pictograph Point is the largest and best known group of petroglyphs in Mesa Verde....The Anasazi stood ont he ledge and chipped the design through the exterior desert varnish to the light sandstone beneath. In 1942, four Hopi men from northeastern Arizona visited pictograph point and interpreted some of the glyphs."

The Hopi interpretation of this is the "parrot clan took up residence at some distance from the Mountain Sheep Clan." You'll notice the line that runs below them, this is said to represent the actual canyon.

Here you can see, from the Hopi interpretations, the Mountain Sheep Clan, the sacred "sipapu" (the two spirals in the top right), which is the place at which the Pueblo people emerged from the earth (the Grand Canyon), and representations of the actual puebloan people (the large anthropomorphs at the bottom of the panel.)

More detail of the panel.

Nice view of the canyon from the trailhead.

This is known as the Spruce Tree House, which is located near a spring right next to the museum and just down the canyon from Cliff Palace. From the trail guide, "Spruce Tree House, the third largest cliff dwelling among several hundred within park boundaries (Cliff Palace and Long House are larger), was constructed between AD 1200 and 1276 by the Anasazi. The dwelling contains about 114 rooms and eight kivas, built into a natural cave measuring 216 feet at greatest width and 89 feet at its greatest depth. It is thought to have been home for about 100 people."

This is for all of my archaeology friends. :) Dendrochronology is loosely known as "tree-ring dating" and involves detailed carbon dating and counting of ancient tree rings to create a timeline of when the tree was alive. I spoke with an archaeologist on the pictograph point trail and he said that because of amazing preservation, most of the wood in the cliff dwellings is original, and that is one way they are able to assign dates to the structures.

Anasazi Potter.

Piece reconstructed from sherds.

This is Mogollon-style pottery.

Nice little brew I had at the restaurant at Mesa Verde.

The infamous Cliff Palace. From the brochure, "About 1,400 years ago, long before Europeans explored North America, a group of people living in the Four Corners region chose Mesa Verde for their home. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of canyon walls. Then in the late 1200s, in the span of a generation or two, they left their homes and moved away. Mesa Verde National Park preserved a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture. Archaeologists have called these people Anasazi, from a Navajo word sometimes translated as "the ancient foreigners." We now call them Ancestral Puebloans, reflecting their modern descendants..."

Me at Cliff Palace. I didn't go on the tour, the overlook was nice enough and I didn't want to pay another $15 to follow a park ranger around. :P

From the brochure, "We will never know the whole story; they left no written records and much that was important in their lives has perished. Yet for all their silence, these structures speak with a certain eloquence. They tell of a people adept at building, artistic in their crafts, and skillful in making a living from a difficult land. The structures are evidence of a society that, over centuries, accumulated skills and traditions and passed them on from generation to generation. By the Classic Period (AD 100 to AD 1300), Ancestral Puebloans were heirs of a vigorous civilization, whose accomplishments in community living and the arts must be ranked among the finest expressions of human culture in North America. Using nature to advantage, Ancestral Puebloans built their dwellings beneath the overhaning cliffs. Their basic construction material was sandstone that they shaped into rectangular blocks about the size of a loaf of bread. The mortar between the blocks was a mix of dirt and water. Living rooms averaged about six feet by eight feet, space enough for two or three persons. Isolated rooms in the rear and on the upper levels were generally used for storing crops. They were experienced builders, as the construction testifies. Walls are tall and straight and have withstood the tests of time and the elements. Many daily activities took place in open courtyards in from of the rooms. Fires built in the summer were mainly for cooking. In winter, when the alcove rooms were damp and uncomfortable, fires probably burned throughout the village. Smoke-blackened walls and ceilings are reminders of the biting cold these people lived with for several months each year.

Kiva from one of the earlier "pit houses," which were used prior to the construction of the cliff dwellings.

Scene from Park View Point in Mesa Verde National Park. One more blurb from the brochure..."Ancestral Puebloans spent much of their time getting food, even in the best years. Farming was their main work, but they supplemented crops of beans, corn, and squash by gathering wild plants and hunting deer, rabbits, squirrels, and other game. Their only domestic animals were dogs and turkeys (dogs were domesticated prior to the arrival of the indigenous people into America, however-I learned that in New World Prehistory :P...Fortunaly, Ancestral Puebloans tossed their trash close by-scraps of food, broken pottery and tools, anything not wanted, went down the slope in front of their homes. Much of what we know about the daily life here comes from these garbage heaps." Hehe. :)

Rocky Mountain wildflowers for you, Sara! :)

I think this is poison hemlock...I could be mistaken.

These were the mule deer I fed. :) They weren't too thrilled with the camera flash.

I like this one. :)

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Tunnel.

Tunnel-vision.

Passenger train right outside of Georgetown, CO.

FINALLY, I saw some elk! :D

This is the gravesite of Buffalo Bill Cody. and his wife.

Statue outside the Buffalo Bill Cody museum.

And a sign on the fence. I thought it funny, since these aren't actually buffalo, their bison. :P 

Well folks, that was a wonderful drive through Colorado. I am now in Kansas City, Missouri and will be heading to St. Louis tomorrow to visit Cahokia, then off to Louisville to visit my aunt and uncle. Then I will be home! Check back for the final set of Road Trip 2011 pictures soon! Peace and love to all!

J

On Monday, after a long haul through Utah, I drove off the interstate to Arches National Park to check out their rock art and scenery (as recommended by Dex), and I had a fantastic time! The area is laden with canyons (Canyonlands National Park is close by) and the rock art is everywhere! There are two sites within Arches National Park, but I only got to visit one, as it started raining on me when I went to check out the other one. Moab is a neato little town with lots of kayak/rock climbing/adventure shops and cool little stores on the main strip. The Colorado river runs through town, which has carved out many of the canyons on its long way down to the Grand Canyon, all the way down in Arizonie! They also have a brewery, with great food and beer! Most of the rock art pictures are outside of the National Park, on main roads in the Moab area where anyone can check them out...enjoy!

Petroglyph in Arches National Park at the Wolfe Creek Ranch Rock Art Site.

Full panel from Wolfe Ranch Rock Art site. This is an example of historic Ute rock art. If you look closely, you can see people riding on horses, which were introduced into the New World by the Spanish and were eventually reared by the indigenous peoples. From the parks brochure map, "American Indians used this area for thousands of years. The Archaic peoples, and later ancestral Puebloan, Fremont, and Ute peoples, searched the arid desert for food animals, wild plant foods, and stone for tools and weapons. They also left evidence of their passing on a few pictograph and petroglyph panels."

Self-explanatory.

Arch.

Tree.

This was cool...this area is called "Devil's Garden," which was neat that I got to walk through it, as I've also been to the Garden of the Gods in both Colorado Springs and Shawnee National Forest in Illinois.

Me at the Pine Tree Arch in the Devil's Garden area.

Pine Tree Arch.

This is called "Balanced Rock". From the park's brochure map "Water and ice, extreme temperatures, and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculpted rock scenery of Arches National Park."

This is on the Utah Scenic Byway 279 (Potash Road). The entire panel was too large to photograph in one picture, and the images are about 25-30 feet up on the canyon wall. The images are dated to the Formative Period, AD 1 to AD 1275, which is where we see an overlap of Anasazi and Fremont forms.

Another part of the panel on Utah 279, showing several animals and anthropomorphs.

Another section of the panel, showing anthropomorphic figures and abstract designs.

There was rock art at this site on 279, but I couldn't find it. Those two white spots on the right side of that rock are dinosaur tracks. :)

Railway on Utah 279.

"Jug Handle Arch", again on Utah HWY 279...there is rock art at this site, but I couldn't find it...if you can see anything, let me know!

My Black Raven Oatmeal Stout at the Moab Brewery. Such a cool little place...you can check out their website here. I also had a cajun chicken sandwich and cole slaw, but I was hungry and gobbled it down before I thought to snap a photo! :P

I ran across this in Moonflower Canyon, while looking for rock art in the Moab area. Little did I know, the images were at the mouth of the canyon, but it was a nice walk into the canyon anyway. I put that little rock on top of the pile, and it DIDN'T fall over. :P

Petroglyph panel at Moonflower Canyon on Kane Creek BLVD in the Moab area dating from the Archaic to Formative periods. The large, triangular shape with head-dress is regarded as a "Barrier Canyon Style Figure". The bighorn sheep and abstract images are common in the Moab area, appearing at most sites that I surveyed. This panel is actually one of the most vandalized sites in the area and is now "protected" by a fence...

Detail of Bighorn Sheep and other zoomorphs at the mouth of Moonflower Canyon Rock Art Site.

More bighorn sheep and abstract figures.

Another panel on Kane Creek BLVD in Moab showing Big Horn Sheep, abstract images, anthropomorphic, and zoomorphic figures. The curvilinear shape with the line might be representative of a canyon and a river.

This was the biggie on Kane Creek BLVD in Moab. This boulder is located right off the dirt road with all four sides bearing rock art. The designs date from the Formative (AD 1- AD 1275) to the Ute period (AD 1200s to AD 1880).

This is a famous scene on the panel known as the "birthing scene"

Walking around the boulder, you find this.

Then this.

And this.

This is on the same panel of the boulder as the "birthing scene." D.J. said it looked like Darth Vader. Hahah! I thought it was a really cool anthropomorph. It was about 3 feet in height.

Feets on the main panel.

Horned serpent, anthropomorphs, zoomorphs, and abstract images on the main panel of the boulder.

Me with the boulder. This was one of the coolest rock art sites that I've ever seen!

Abstract images on another boulder just up the road.

This panel is known as the "Golf Course Rock Art Site", as it is located in a fancy area on near the golf course in Moab. There are many cool images on this panel.

Dex actually got me a sand-art card with this anthropomorph on the front when he went to Arches National Park. It was cool to find the actual image. :) I was a happy man.

Another part of the panel, you can see some vandalism at the bottom.

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Another arch on the scenic drive to Colorado.

Rainbow (not double) on the way to Colorado from Utah. There was a ferocious storm a-brewin' and this magical thing was on the rim. I've never seen a rainbow from end-to-end, so this was pretty cool. I took a silly video, too, since I was too close to capture the entire thing. Check back soon, and I'll post it here.

One end of the rainbow. Skittles were flying out of the sky...

Now THAT is a double rainbow. :P These were actually two "sun dogs" as I've heard them called, but they were still cool to see!

As the sun started setting, this is what it looked like.

And then faded into this. It was neat to watch the process. :)

 Thanks for checking out my rock art pictures and double rainbows. Check back soon for more petroglyph pictures and Cliff Palace as well as other cliff dwelling sites from Mesa Verde National Park. And of course, some Rock Mountain scenery. :) I'm off to bed. Peace and love to all!

J