NOTES – 2003

Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 17: PUBLICATIONS PMSS
NOTES 2003
Winter

NOTES – 2003

“Notes from the Pine Mountain Settlement School”
2003 Winter

GALLERY: NOTES – 2003 Winter

As a great leader, Gen.[James E.] Bickford inspired us to do more, to set high goals, to tackle tough problems. We are taking up his challenge.

TAGS: NOTES – 2003 Winter, fundraising letter, Nancy Adams, fall and winter activities, ecotourism initiative, bird blind donors, Great Backyard Bird Count, workshop to study the PMSS area forest, In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun, Preservation Field Schools, Gen. James E. Bickford, PRIDE Program

TRANSCRIPTION: NOTES – 2003 Winter

P. 1

NOTES FROM THE
PINE MOUNTAIN
SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
PINE MOUNTAIN ~ HARLAN COUNTY ~ KENTUCKY
 Telephone: 606-558-3571

Late Winter 2003

[Color cover photograph: “Gen. James E. Bickford, 1937-2002, Friend of Pine Mountain Settlement School. (Photograph courtesy of Land, Air & Sea magazine)”]

P. 2

Dear Friends,

As I write to you, light snow falls on Pine Mountain. We have experienced true winter, with frigid temperatures and frequent snowfall. The weather has kept most of the staff indoors to work on plans for improving programs and on upkeep of our historic buildings. Outside, deer venture from beneath the shelter of pine trees in search of food, and wild turkeys roam on the slopes behind Laurel House.

The fall season and Christmas celebrations were a busy time for all. We welcomed two dozen school groups and three homemakers clubs. Old friends and newcomers enjoyed an historic preservation field school, a nature photography weekend, fall color weekend, and a crafts weekend. We were honored to have federal, state and local officials, and representatives of several local and regional groups attend an ecotourism roundtable here.

The Nativity Play, presented by members of the Pine Mountain community, reminded us of the precious gift of unconditional love.

The year 2003 marks Pine Mountain Settlement School’s 90th anniversary. Throughout those years, the School has worked with many individuals and groups on important educational endeavors and community projects. We are continuing that tradition today.

The Settlement School is a partner with other local groups to develop an ecotourism initiative in the Pine Mountain region. As the coal industry in Southeastern KY continues its decline and coal jobs disappear, the ecotourism movement offers impetus to find ways to preserve and present the culture and history of the area. Ecotourism also offers the possibility of new and interesting jobs that may stem the outmigration of residents and attract students and other visitors to these beautiful mountains. Pine Mountain is working with Southeast Community College and other Harlan County groups on a three-year program to address social conditions that cause despair and depression. The program will offer community-building arts projects: oral history and story gathering, theater, public art, music, and photography. Pine Mountain is also working with social service groups in Harlan County to coordinate efforts to address problems of drug abuse, spouse abuse, and underachieving students. These partnerships are critical to improving social, educational, and economic conditions in the area’s communities.

On behalf of the staff, I want to thank you for your interest in, and support of, Pine Mountain Settlement School. Through your contributions, we can continue to direct our time and talents toward offering educational opportunities for area residents and fulfilling the desire of William Creech, who donated land for the School, that “our people may grow better.”

In the spirit of Pine Mountain,
[Signed] Nancy Adam
Nancy Adams, Executive Director

P. 3

New Programs

This year, Pine Mountain is instituting two new programs. The first is a partnership with nearby Cumberland Elementary School to study birds. In 2002, Pine Mountain Settlement School received a grant from PRIDE (Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment) to build a bird blind. The PRIDE grant and a donation from Burton Rogers, our beloved long-time director, will allow us to complete the bird blind. Natural Resources Conservation Services has given money to buy bird seed for the coming year. The bird blind is a 20- by 16-foot enclosed shelter. People inside can look through one-way windows to observe birds without causing distraction. The shelter has benches and can hold about 20 people. It is also accessible to those in wheelchairs. The bird blind will be used first by the Cumberland Elementary School students when they participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) this month. The GBBC is a joint project of the Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

[Image: Small sketch of a bird perched on a plant.]

The second program is a four-day workshop to study the mixed mesophytic forest of the Pine Mountain Area. The workshop, titled “In the Footsteps of Lucy Braun,” is named for Dr. Lucy Braun, an Ohio native and University of Cincinnati professor and pre-eminent ecologist who studied the forests of Eastern North America for 25 years in the first half of the 20th century. Her studies brought her to the Pine Mountain area in the 1920s and ’30s. One result of her comprehensive work was “Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America,” which was published in 1950. This book is still regarded by ecologists and botanists as the definitive text on this subject. The workshop is scheduled for June 4 through 8. Students will take field trips to some of the forests described in Braun’s book: a relict hemlock gorge, a high elevation mixed mesophytic forest, a pine and pine-oak forest, and an old-growth forest.

P. 4

Preservation Field Schools

One of Pine Mountain’s on-going concerns is maintenance and repair of its historic buildings. This upkeep can be expensive. But, in the tradition of Pine Mountain, we decided to turn a problem into an opportunity. In the fall of 2002, the School joined with the Kentucky Heritage Council and the Tri-Cities Mainstreet Program to put on a preservation field school at Pine Mountain. The two- week school focused on restoration of wooden and steel windows. We were fortunate to be able to bring two of the country’s foremost preservationists, Bob Yapp and John Seekircher, to Pine Mountain to teach the workshops. Mr. Yapp is a builder and preservation consultant whose television series “About Your House” appeared for three years on PBS. Mr. Seekircher has restored steel windows in some of the country’s most renowned structures, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania.

[Color photograph: “Students at work on Draper“]

The first week, students worked to restore the original wooden windows on the ground floor of the Plant Center. The second week, students began restoration of the original steel windows in Draper, our main classroom building.

The field school was successful beyond our hopes. Students from six states and the Pine Mountain Settlement School maintenance staff attended the workshops. Five students were independent contractors from communities in Kentucky.

We are already seeing the benefits of this preservation model. Pine Mountain staff continue to do restoration work as time and weather allows.

[Color photograph: “David Shepherd, PMSS maintenance supervisor” working on a window.]

P. 5

In nearby Benham, at the Coal Museum, two of our students restored original windows in the Coal Mining Museum. This work helped retain the historic integrity of the building, and saved the museum $25,000 that would have gone toward replacement windows.

We are planning two one-week field schools for this summer to complete work on the Plant Center and begin work on Laurel House. The first session, scheduled for July 6 through 11, will address restoration of wooden windows and removal of vinyl siding. The second session, scheduled for August 17 through 22, will focus on exterior painting and plastering.

General James E. Bickford

[Color photograph: Gen. James E Bickford in U.S. Army uniform.]

Gen. James E. Bickford, who as secretary of the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet ruled in favor of in Pine Mountain Settlement School in its petition to designate lands unsuitable for mining, died in October 2002.

We knew him to be a person of utmost integrity. He took Pine Mountain’s petition seriously. He traveled to the School, walked the grounds, talked with staff. Some people sought to persuade him to reject the petition. But they underestimated him. He always sought to do the right thing, even though that meant making an unpopular decision.

After the petition battle, Gen. Bickford took a particular interest in Pine Mountain. He saw enormous potential for the School to be a leader in ecotourism in the area. But his dream was that Pine Mountain take on the difficult mission of restoring hope to youth in Harlan County who have been defeated by circumstances at an early age. He urged us to imagine how the School might expand its Intervention program to help more students with learning difficulties. He envisioned summer residential learning programs for Harlan County youth where they would take classes in the morning and work on campus in the afternoon. He planned to talk with leaders at two of the state’s universities about setting up distance learning programs here.

P. 6

(General Bickford con’t.)

Gen. Bickford grew up in Harlan County, where his father operated a coal company store and his mother taught in the public schools. He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, and earned a master’s degree from Florida Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Army for 32 years and was a highly decorated brigadier general.

Upon retirement, he returned to Kentucky. Gov. Patton appointed him to the position of secretary of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet in 1995.

By all accounts, he brought professionalism and integrity to his new position. He held high standards for his employees and they respected him for that. His leadership led to environmental improvements in all parts of the state. No area benefited more, however, than Eastern Kentucky. He and his good friend, Rep. Hal Rogers, who represents people in Kentucky’s Fifth Congressional District, created the PRIDE program to eliminate sewage pollution, clean up roadside dumps, and educate citizens about how to restore and take care of the natural environment. (PRIDE stands for Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment.) As a result of the efforts of Gen. Bickford and Rep. Rogers, nearly 3,000 dumps have been cleaned up. Communities are constructing wastewater treatment systems.

After his death, Pine Mountain received dozens of contributions in memory of Gen. Bickford. We spoke with his wife Shirley about how we could best use the money to honor her husband. We have made an offer to the Harlan County Board of Education to bring 10 schools to Pine Mountain over the course of the 2003-2004 school year for a two-day, one-night stay. During their time here, students would take environmental and cultural education classes, and crafts classes. Approximately 500 students would benefit from these memorial gifts.

As a great leader, Gen. Bickford inspired us to do more, to set high goals, to tackle tough problems. We are taking up his challenge.

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