Had a big day today as I visited My Old Kentucky State Park. On this park is the home shown below called "Federal Hill" but also known as My Old Kentucky Home. This home provided the inspiration for Stephen Collins Foster for the writing of the state song of Kentucky in 1853. Mr. Foster wrote over two hundred songs during his life including "Beautiful Dreamer", "Camptown Races", Oh! Susanna", and "My Old Kentucky Home", which is played every year at many Kentucky events. The annual Kentucky Derby horse race is one of the events where the crowd joins in and sings the song just before the race starts. On the grounds is an Amphitheatre which puts on a play every year called the Stephen Foster story. The actors are all local citizens of all ages and some have participated in the show for fifteen years playing appropriate age roles.
After leaving the park we stopped at a small park in Bardstown to view a replica of the first steam boat built by John Fitch in about 1787. Mr. Fitch was an inventor and engineer who came up with the idea of powering a boat with a steam engine which had been developed in Britain. The boat shown in the picture below is only 1/25th the size of the boat built for traveling across the Delaware River. This design proved to not being successful commercially so Mr. Fitch developed a boat with a propeller instead of the oars. That concept is still in use today on almost all boats and ships.
Bye for now,
Flat Abigail, Class 3B
