The Kentucky River by William E. Ellis

Author:William E. Ellis [Ellis, William E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813189895
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Apparently the loss of a few chickens coupled with other sundry articles combined with some dislike for Daugherty to bring mirth to the residents of the Valley View area during the Great Depression. Even as we face a new century, people who remember the old days at Valley View smile when they recall “The Daugherty Flood.”34

The Kentucky River is dangerous even during normal weather, and all along the river there are stories of drownings. The locks and dams create special hazards to boaters. On 21 May 1967, six men died when a cabin cruiser went over Lock 9 at Valley View. Lockmaster Dale Walden saved three men who tried to swim ashore, but the others were swept over the dam, which at the time was running at least 6 feet deep over the precipice. The force of the water pulled the men under. Lockkeepers recounted numerous similar stories like this in their interviews.35

Disregard for the dangers around the locks, many times accompanied by abuse of alcohol, too often have led to unnecessary death. At Boonesborough, Lock 10, a place where boaters often over imbibe, there has been a considerable number of accidents resulting in deaths. One Sunday a Corps of Engineers workboat captain watched “two drunks jump the dam.” Nudging the workboat they yelled, “Did you see us jump the dam?” Fortunately the two men survived long enough to be arrested by the water patrol. “So many people don’t realize what them dams will do to you. They should have some kind of law so they know what they’re doing, ’cause most of them don’t,” the captain said.36

Sometimes people panic. “A fellow went out and tired to crank his motor one day, put in about 200 yards above the lock. Shoved his boat out and started cranking on his motor; went over and never hit a lick, he drowned. He had oars in the boat and never made an effort. His dad hollered, ‘Come on in to the bank, come on in to the bank,’ and he still tried to crank the motor,” recalled lockmaster Estill Thomas about the incident. At another lock a man jumped from his boat as it went over the dam. The boat survived the fall and even the man’s guitar did not leave the boat, but the man died and was not found until the next spring. Another man did the same, jumping into the river just before his boat went over the dam. “The boat came off, down the river, floated, come on down, and they wasn’t a gallon of water in it,” recollected a lockkeeper who witnessed the tragedy. Sometimes even the most experienced and wary lock personnel get caught by the river’s fury. One time a lockmaster and his wife nearly drowned while crossing above Lock 3. “That oar broke and I fell over backwards in the back of the boat, but fortunately I had that extra oar. My wife and me were within 24 yards of drowning. There was no question that if we had gone over the dam we would have drowned.

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