An American Chestnut in Adair

The American Chestnut, or Castanea dentata, once ruled the Appalachians with a range extending from Maine to Mississippi. They were extremely important to wildlife, providing much of the fall mast for species such as White-tailed Deer, Black Bears, Wild Turkey and, before it went extinct, the Passenger Pigeon. And now the American Chestnut is close to extinction itself.

Sometime in the late 19th century, the chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) was accidentally introduced into our country by imported chestnut trees or cheap imported Chinese lumber. The Chinese and Japanese species of Chestnut are resistant to the blight, but America's had no natural resistance to it. The disease was first reported on trees in the Bronx Zoo in 1904, and by 1940 almost all adult American Chestnut trees in America had been wiped out.

There are still many small young trees, shoots and saplings out there, but they rarely get a chance to mature. Interestingly, the root systems of the former Chestnut trees are still there under the soil and they're still trying to produce new shoots, but sooner or later the blight gets the new trees before they can get very big. A few actually manage to get several feet tall before succumbing, but that's nothing compared to the 150-foot height of a healthy and mature specimen.

It has been estimated that before the blight, the total number of American Chestnut trees in eastern North America was over three billion. And today, the number of them over 60 centimeters in diameter within the tree's former range is estimated to be fewer than one hundred.


And so it was an event of considerable importance when in 1999, an 80-year-old, 50-foot American Chestnut was discovered in Adair County, Kentucky.

How did it survive when so many others did not? No one's really sure. But it, along with other survivors that have turned up in Ohio, Tennesseee, Georgia and Alabama, is providing researchers with hope that all is not lost for the American Chestnut. The American Chestnut Foundation is working to turn back the clock on this endangered tree, and I encourage you to get involved with their Kentucky chapter.

Asleep Twelve Years

The November 2, 1906 issue of the New York Times features a story about an Adair County man who entered a "Rip Van Winkle nap", sleeping for 12 years and still continuing to slumber at the time of the article's appearance. Herchall Grider, 63, was apparently not in a coma but somewhere between a minimally conscious state and a persistent vegetative state, since he was able to be unconsciously fed by his family without choking.


The only other appearance of this story I could find was in the Breckenridge News, Cloverport, KY, Wednesday, November 7, 1906 - oddly, trailing after the New York reporting of it by almost a week. Both stories are similarly worded enough to conclude that one was simply a rewrite of the other - or perhaps both are reworded relayings of a third report elsewhere.

"Treasure Chest" West

From our Voraxica blog:

Burlesque stripper Evelyn "Treasure Chest" West was born in Elroy, KY (Adair County) as Amy Mae Coomer. Although she worked small jobs like circus sideshows and did some performing in bit parts for films like Rhythm on the River (1940) and Birth of the Blues (1941), it wasn't until after World War II that her career really took off as a stripper, working San Francisco clubs and posing for Bunny Yeager.


According to Wikipedia:

Evelyn West was also an ardent publicity seeker. She tried to legally change her name to Evelyn "$50,000 Treasure Chest" West at the Menard County Circuit Court,[3] threw a tomato at rival Anita Ekberg, appeared at nudist weddings, charged with indecent exposure, threatened legal action against contemporaries Tempest Storm and Jane Russell, and openly criticized Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.

Evelyn also occasionally returned to her home state to perform in the delightful sleazy drink-dens of Newport, KY during its "Sin City" days.


According to an article in the February 1956 issue of the men's magazine Sir!, West invested $5,000 in a plan her boyfriend Steven Vitko had for building an experimental flying saucer for the U.S. Government. He never built the flying saucer, nor repaid the investment, so she sued in 1952 to recover the money. Sir! Magazine doesn't say whether she won or lost the suit.

She lived a tranquil live in her final years in a modest home in Florida, and was reportedly an avid eBay seller.

View: Evelyn West film footage

Elmer Hill

According to the Adair County News, a strange and brutal murder, manhunt and subsequent lynching occured in November 1908.

The body of a Russell County schoolgirl named Mamie Womack was found assaulted and murdered about three miles from Russell Springs. Womack had disappeared during the time she had been supposed to be heading home after departing the Mt.Olive school, and search parties quickly discovered her remains.

The girl's family, it is said, immediately suspected a local eccentric named Elmer Hill because of the nature of the crime. It is not recorded exactly why they thought this, or what past incidents they based this assumption on. Solely on the assurance of the parents that it had to be Hill, a posse was formed and the manhunt began. Professional police bloodhounds were brought in from Lincoln County and although they soon picked up a scent that was followed for about a mile, they lost the trail just outside of Columbia, KY.

Wanted posters were hastily issued, presuming and proclaiming Hill's guilt and offering a $350 reward. These posters noted Hill's speech impediment and "bad reputation". Locals were whipped into a frenzy by the manhunt and by the time Hill was captured on November 13, 1908, there had formed a huge mob calling for his immediate lynching.

That night, a crowd of people broke into the jail at Jamestown, KY with the intent of kidnapping Hill, determined to mete out justice themselves rather than wait for his trial. But when they arrived, they found Hill's cell empty. Having foreseen such a mob uprising, the authorities had dressed Hill in drag and escorted him out under the pretense of being a woman. Apparently Hill was "passable" enough to make it past the lynch mob, and he was whisked off to another jail in Monticello, Wayne County. Ultimately, however, the lynch mob discovered his whereabouts and forceably spirited him out.

The original plan, called for by Mamie Womack's mother, was to drag Hill back to the scene of the crime and burn him at the stake. This plan was abandoned as too time-consuming and risky, and it was decided to take him to nearby woods and get the job done as soon as possible.

It's reported that Hill was placed astride a horse, and the noose around his neck attached to an overhead branch. When prodded for some last words, Hill is reported to have said that his only regret was not doing the same to all the other little girls in town as well. And with that, some unknown hand chose that moment to slap the horse's behind. Hill was dead instantly, and left hanging in the tree to be discovered the next day.

That's how the Adair County News originally reported it anyway. However, an online discussion about the matter here seems to indicate a lot of contradictory datums and unanswered questions.