Museum Newsletter - 08 Jun 2008

Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum E-Newsletter
June 8, 2008, (Volume 4, Number 5)

Dear Friends,

Announcements...

>> Genealogical Society Meeting Saturday, June 21, 10:00 a.m.

Our regular Bullitt County Genealogical Society meeting will be held Saturday, June 21, at 10:00 a.m. at Ridgway Memorial Library in Shepherdsville.

The scheduled guest speaker will be Karen Gleitz, who will be presenting her "Flags Over Corydon". All 35 flags that have flown over Corydon will be on display and she will be discussing the relative history, including a sing-along!

Activity

>>Museum Portable Scanning Project Nearly Ready.

Thanks mostly to Bob Cline for loaning a laptop computer, and even buying a $250+ special hand-wand scanner, we will soon be ready to "go out into the world and scan". This developing new project consists of setting up a dedicated, easily-portable scanning set that we can take out from the museum to places such as homes and other places where photos and documents need to be saved and preserved to computer, but, for whatever reason, it is best to not remove the items from the site. This project has the potential of saving hundreds of unique Bullitt County photos and documents that might otherwise soon be lost forever.

The setup gear consists of a laptop computer, a portable flat-plate scanner bought by the museum, and the impressive little "Docupen 800" wand scanner, all of which fits into an easily carried little backpack. The photo shows Bob trying out the system, with laptop computer and flat-plate scanner on the table, and the Docupen in his hand. That Docupen scanner is especially remarkable. It is a cordless device maybe twice the size of an ink pen. It can scan up to 600 DPI quality (pretty darn good), and it can scan things that might otherwise be impossible on a standard flat plate. One example might be a framed picture, hanging on a wall. Pretty cool!

We still have a little work to do in getting everything to work really simple, so almost no training will be needed for volunteers.

And then we will be ready to go.

But we will need some volunteers to go out and do this important work. If you can spare some time for this, it could be a really fascinating new world, discovering some bits of our old world. Please contact us if you are interested in getting involved wit this great new opportunity!

>>Over 2500 cemetery photos added to our archives. Team visits Ft. Knox cemeteries.

The cemetery documentation team keeps rolling along. We now have over 2500 new photographs of Bullitt County Cemeteries and tombstones! And it keeps growing. The team recently was allowed to make a special trip with Ft. Knox history expert Gary Kempf to Ft. Knox cemeteries that are normally off limits to civilians. It was quite an adventure! Check out some photos of the trip at our web site. The old overgrown bridge is almost mystic looking.

By the way, the cemetery team tells me with great emphasis that they have certainly hit tick and chigger season in Bullitt County. Those little buggers make summertime exploration in overgrown areas very troublesome, and can be dangerous. I suspect visits to some of the most overgrown areas will slow down now until fall frost. But the team is pushing on in many areas, and will be spending more time formalizing the documentation they have..

>>Gary Kempf donations.

Long time friend and supporter Gary Kempf brought the museum some more of his unique research work on Ft. Knox for our archives. Gary also gave several binders of Ft. Knox cemetery photos and several large maps to our Ridgway Public Library next door. Thank you so much Gary!!

>> Special Request. Pictures of Paroquet Springs?

Bullitt County Tourism Director (and museum Friend) Elaine Wilson asks us to find some photographs or paintings of the original Paroquet Springs resort. The old resort, for which our local conference center is named, was hugely popular from about 1830 to just after 1900. It is all now long gone (burned down twice) except for the Lone Grave and a few wells and foundation stones. There are absolutely no pictures of it that we know of, beyond a tiny icon drawing on a not-so-good map.

We have searched before with no luck, but surely something is out there of a place once so popular.

If you know of anything, please let us know.

>>Another state added to news list.

Welcome to Helen Mathews and all the recent additions to this e-newletter list. Helen lives in Kansas, and I don't think we had that state on our list yet. So, welcome Helen! May you and all our Friends of the Bullitt County History Museum enjoy our little (but award winning!!) newsletter.

For Your Information...

>>Trouble understanding GPS location numbers?

There are several formats of recording GPS latitude and longitude location numbers, and that can be confusing sometimes. But those numbers are becoming more and more important in documenting and locating historic places around the county and the world. One web site that can help a bit is https://www.cosportscom/tools/gps_coords.htm.

Finally......Summer.

The Christian Bible's New Testament talks about knowing summer is coming by noticing the signs. Well, around Bullitt County, one of those signs is the constant chirping of Cicadas. And, oh boy, is it summer around here now! I don't care when the calendar says summer begins. It is summer now as far as I am concerned.

This is the year of the 17 year (or 13 year, or whichever one it is this year) cicada in Kentucky. These particular grasshopper-sized little rascals come out only once in that number of years, make a whole lot of noise (and a whole lot of love) for a few weeks, leave their shed skin cases everywhere, lay their eggs,and just as quickly disappear again.

But every year there are some, chirping in the summer season. Close by, they sound something like crickets. Very loud crickets. Millions of crickets. At a distance, they sound something like a Martian flying saucer, or perhaps just a squeaky fan.

And somehow summer comes with them. Summer with its 95+ degree weather. Summer with its sudden, sometimes violent, but brief, thunderstorms. Summer with its ticks and chiggers. Summer that so quickly turns everything dry and a bit crispy.

But that's all OK. Summer is also dependable. Summer brings vacationing researchers to our museum. Summer drives away the winter ache in my bones.

So Spring, you were beautiful but all too brief. Summer, come on if you want to. We're ready for you. The Cicadas have sung.

Thank you for being a Friend of Bullitt County History.

David Strange
Bullitt County History Museum
Executive Director
Museum Phone: 502-921-0161
David.Strange@BullittCountyHistory.org
BullittCountyHistory.org