With photo equipment ready to go, I managed to be in the front row of my state's biggest demolition. I was surprised that there were no photographers from local media next to me. Had I picked the wrong spot? No, this spot on the bridge was arguably the best view in Frankfort of the tower’s top to bottom floors.
The old Capitol Plaza Tower, which was the tallest building in Frankfort, had been scheduled by demolitionists to come down on March 11, 2018. When it happened, it happened fast. Bars of outward extending smoke were signs of explosions that broke the backbone of the Capital Plaza Tower. The building disintegrated before my eyes. Where there was a skyscraper, mere seconds later there was only sky.
One of the engineers on sight, who was surveying his handiwork from the view from the bridge, told me that his company had measured, planned, re-measured, re-planned and thought out the contingencies of this moment for months. "It went just like expected," he said triumphantly.
The cloud from the debris rolled over to where I stood from the adjacent block, stopping just feet away.
Almost eleven months later I have finally learned how to actualize the photo I had in mind — to make a single panel collage from three of my photos of the event surrounding 1:29 p.m. ET on March 11, 2018. Now I need to learn how to transfer the camera metadata.
Tags: Frankfort Kentucky demolition collage Capital Plaza Tower implosion photojournalism Nikon D850 Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens 1/2500 sec f/6.3 March 11, 2018
This is the last remaining building of the town that former Kentucky slaves built, the freetown of Sleettown.
Sleet family, thank you for a century and a half of howling for your rights. Thanks to your slave ancestors who saw the great Civil War carnage at the Battle of Perryville and who joined the U.S. Army Colored Troops to serve in preserving the union and for emancipation. This building is the last tangible evidence here of their cry from the past to secure a more perfect future for you, which in turn has helped make Americans better people and a more perfect union. The Union needs more Sleets from now to eternity to howl for their rights. "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Tags: B.F. Chatham Estate Boyle County Camp Nelson Henry Sleet Pattersons Perryville Preston Sleet Raymond Sleet Sleets Sleettown Swanns farm freed slaves freetown last house of Sleettown sharecropping
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#3 Mystik Dan
#2 Sierra Leone
#11 Forever Young
#4 Catching Freedom
Tags: Mystic Dan Derby Day Derby Race Forever Young thoroughbred racing Churchill Downs Sierra Leone Kentucky Kentucky Derby 150 Kentucky Derby Louisville United States
Here’s my take of the Great American Solar Eclipse of 2024. I was there at singer John Mellencamp's hometown in Southern Indiana.
Tags: 2024 Solar Eclipse total solar eclipse Mascatatuck NWR Great American Solar Eclipse Indiana Jackson County Seymour United States prominences corona Baily’s beads eclipse diamond ring Sliders Sunday
Marker #2283 of the Kentucky Historical Society next to this gravesite says that the marker "in Shelby County commemorates the massacre of members of the 5th United States Colored Cavalry (USCC) near Simpsonville."
Wikipedia states that the U.S. 5th Colored Cavalry had already experienced a killing of hatred at the Battle of Saltville, Virginia in October, 1864 when: "members of the 5th USCC, were murdered in their hospital beds by Confederate partisans."
That was just a few months before this Simpsonville massacre of the same group. The historical marker goes on to describe the massacre in Kentucky:
"On January 25, 1865, Company E of the 5th USCC was transporting a herd of 900 cattle to Louisville. These troops, based at Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, had previously fought at the Battle of Saltville, Virginia. Nearly all of the soldiers were former slaves.
When the African American troops neared Simpsonville with their livestock, they were attacked by Confederate guerrillas. During the fight, which the Louisville Journal called ‘a horrible butchery,’ twenty-two of the USCC were killed and eight were severely wounded. At least four of the injured later died from their wounds."
Tags: 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry Civil War Confederate guerilla forces Kentucky Simpsonville battlefield gravesite war crimes USCT Camp Nelson