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May 17, 1978 Around Adair with Ed Waggener This article first appeared in the May 17, 1978 Daily Statesman, and includes memories of Fisher's Ford, E. P. Waggener's mail route, Mountain Laurel, and the river culture that was lost when Green River Lake was impounded. By Ed Waggener Floral Display above Holmes Bend this week From the appearance of the plants this past Saturday, there ought to be a spectacular floral display on the Laurel Cliffs above Holmes Bend this week when the mountain laurel there bursts into bloom. As far as I know, the cliffs are the only place in Adair County where mountain laurel grows. It was really pretty last year. To get to the Laurel Cliffs from Columbia, take the Holmes Bend Road to the first gravel road to the left immediately before reaching Charity Baptist Church. The cliffs are about one and one-half miles beyond, on the right, and stretch approximately one-half mile along the roadside. There's a good show of mountain laurel along the roadside, and an even greater one along the first road to the right as the cliff and main road diverge. Too, there's a beautiful view of Holmes Bend from the cliffs, making a digression there well worth while. I make a pilgrimage there every May to see the laurel. It's worth it. And it's a lot easier than driving to the mountains. Enchanting part of Adair County The area around Holmes Bend is more than just a boat dock and campgrounds. That's okay. But I remember what was there before the reservoir, and I think it's arguable that it was even better then. Along the Holmes Bend Road was a beautiful little place in the Butler Creek Hollow. It remains today one of the most memorable Adair County scenes. Walter Grant lives there today, and he named it Happy Hollow years ago. Across the road from Grant's farm, on property now owned by Clyde Porter of Russell Springs, there is an everflowing spring, with ice-cold water piped right to the roadside. The water was wonderfully refreshing on hot, dusty days before the Holmes Bend Road was blacktopped. The spring was and is called "Spout Springs." (The name "Spout Springs" seems to be the usual appellation of any spring with a spout, just as "Dug Hill" seems to be the common name of any hill from which a deep-cut road bed has been dug.) Walter Grant used the water for his old home, before he built the new house there, and says he wishes he had the water for drinking purposes today. But the cost of building a pipeline from another man's land persuaded him to opt for other alternatives. On down the road, toward the river, was a community of unusual industry and peacefulness. There was a church, Charity Baptist; a school, Jericho; and a general store and Holmes, Kentucky's United States Post Office. At one time, Walter Grant remembers, there was a blacksmith shop, run by a man named Holmes, from whom the post office, voting precinct and later, the Corps of Engineers ramp and dock site, derived their names. Only Charity Baptist Church remains of the little community. The old school has been torn down. The blacksmith shop is gone, and the Holmes, Kentucky post office is a thing of the past. Was the half-way point I remember the place most vividly because of one of the proprietors of the store, Mr. Jim Riall. The post office was on my father's first mail route, Columbia Route 1. The stop was the mid-point on the route, then. My father, (the late E.P. Waggener) , thought a lot of Mr. Riall, and of the people on the river. They were fine people. They had fine farmland, and they came from pioneer Adair County stock. At that time, their river bottom farms were the most productive in the county, and the upland farms, in that area, were, even then, prosperous. Holmes Bend wasn't called by that name in those days. It was called "Fisher's Ford" after a wonderful river man named Hunter Fisher. The name "Holmes Bend" was given to the place after the Corps of Engineers built the lake, and they decided the name would be changed. Both names have a pleasant ring to them, but I always regretted the loss of the name "Fisher's Ford" in the process. The Holmes voting precinct, was in those days in Riall's store. Later, Holmes was combined with Absher, and the voting location was moved to Absher, but in political fairness, the precinct retained the Holmes name. Today, the voting house is in Calvin Cooley's Green River Bait Shop, near Absher. A beautiful lake retreat home has replaced the old Riall Store and home complex. It's owned by Willard Murrell of Ypsilanti, Michigan. He calls it "My Old Kentucky Home." Mr. Grant tells me that after Mr. Riall sold the store in around 1945, a man named Charlie Giles had a stock of goods there for a while, and then a Dorothy Nash, until 1948, and after that, Mr. Grant ran the store for two years. He closed the store in about 1950, he told me. The land at Holmes-Charity-Jericho is still beautiful, and the church grounds are still picturesque. But in the beholding from memory, I think back that there was a special charm about the community then - a quaintness sweetened by the realization that the charm was simply that of good people working good land, living together in a pleasant land in that peculiar spirit of community only those little villages of that day perfectly attained. Dad told us about the laurel Dad always brought home some of the laurel when it was in bloom. And mother remembers the year when Dad brought enough of it back for Lindsey Wilson to use to decorate the gym for one of the May Day programs they used to have. Of course, today one wouldn't think of cutting any of the laurel. It needs to be left for others to enjoy. Walter Grant says that the folks in that part of the country called the plant "ivy." And he remembers that the plant had special utility. "The wood of the plant is very hard," he said "and we used to make pipes out of it. I've made several myself." And Grant remembers another special plant growing in the Green River area. "We used to ramble on Sunday," he said, "and a lot of times we'd go to the Tea Cliff and pick some leaves of mountain tea. The stuff has a flavor just like the Teaberry Gum you buy in the store." The Tea Cliff is above the land where the Mont Corbin place was located before the Inundation. The land, more than a lake, is the intriguing element to me. And I have often thought that the Commonwealth and the Corps have failed unforgiveably in preserving those values the river country of that day possessed. This story was posted on 2019-05-12 07:19:23
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