Graves of Old-Time Country Musicians

Fiddlin' Doc Roberts, Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, KY.


Asa Martin, Hargett First Church of God Cemetery, Hargett, KY.


Bill Monroe, Rosine Cemetery, Rosine, KY.


Armour Cornelison, Jr., Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, KY.

Waterspout in Kentucky?

This puzzling datum is from the New York Times, August 24, 1901.

A waterspout on a creek? Seriously? Is that possible? A waterspout is, by definition, a funnel cloud that connects from a cumuliform cloud to a large body of water, usually the ocean or the Great Lakes.

The Soreheads of Hartford

No one knows exactly why the sign welcoming you to beautiful downtown Hartford says "Home of 2000 Happy People and a few Soreheads", but there it is, bigger'n life and bold as love.

Even the city's official website makes reference to it: "Our slogan for many years has been the “Home of 2000 Happy People and a Few Soreheads,” but we hope you won’t meet them." No further explanation is proffered.

I wonder if the citizens of Hartford glance furtively at each other in suspicion, trying to figure out just who the soreheads among them are. Perhaps lovers in quarrels heatedly accuse one another of being one of the soreheads of Hartford. In time, it may become inevitable that an online registry of them may be mandated by law.

Livermore Bridge

The Livermore Bridge, located in McLean County near the city of Livermore, has often been referred to as "the longest bridge in the world", and was so designated by Ripley's Believe it or Not. The claim isn't even close to being true, however - I did a quick Googling and found that although people don't quite agree on what exactly is the longest bridge on Earth, Kentucky's Livermore Bridge is nowhere in the running.

The Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is generally regarded as the longest bridge in the world, unless you count the Bang Na Expressway, which is an elevated overpass spanning 33 miles but doesn't cross any body of water.


The Livermore Bridge does have a claim to fame for the record books, though: it begins in one county (McLean), crosses over not one but two rivers (the Green and Rough Rivers), and then passes over a separate county (Ohio County), then ends up back in the county it started in. This is the only known occurrence of this kind in the world, and though it may not be Guinness Book of World Records material, it's unusual enough for me.

Grave Desecration in Echols

According to an article in the Evansville Courier & Press, some vandals recently desecrated the Hopewell Community Cemetery near Echols, KY.

This doesn't sound like your usual garden-variety idiot-teen vandalism, though: they used a backhoe. The article states:

Caretakers believe the heavy equipment was used to dig into the grave of James Franklin Welborn and perhaps a couple of other graves, Benton said. The backhoe driver apparently became mired in the mud and damaged or disturbed eight to 10 other graves and knocked over tombstones, the sheriff said.

In all, an area 50 to 60 feet long and about 25 feet wide was disturbed, Doolin said.

"It appears they might have been looking for some type of artifacts," he said.

After the dirt was moved, heavy rains filled the holes with water. No one knows for sure exactly what is missing from the graves or how deep the holes are, said Benton and his wife Ruth. They aren't sure what would normally be left in a 50-year-old grave.

Welborn, who occupied the disturbed grave, was a World War I veteran who died in 1958at a Dayton, Ohio, veterans hospital, Benton said.

"It's a puzzle to everybody." No one has a clue what someone might be seeking in the graves, he said.

In the immortal words of Fox Mulder, "I think this might be an X-File".