Charles Bogart

The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), from the time it started to run between Lexington, Kentucky, and Louisville, Kentucky, used track rights granted by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N). Thus, when operating between Lexington and Louisville, C&O trains had to conform to L&N rules of operation. C&O train crew members operating out of Lexington had to pass both a C&O and L&N rule book test. The Lexington to Louisville route from L&N’s Lexington Yard to HK Tower at Anchorage, Kentucky, was single track, with passing tracks at various locations. On Jan. 16, 1912, the failure by a C&O...

All Kentuckians are aware that due to dithering over the state constitution, Kentucky became the 15th star in our nation’s flag and not the 14th. Vermont became the 14th state in 1791 and Kentucky the 15th in 1792. What many do not know is that Frankfort ranks eighth in the longevity of being an American state capital city. In 1792, Frankfort was designated as the location of Kentucky’s capital, and in 1793 the legislature first met in Frankfort. The only American cities with a longer record of serving as their state’s capital are Boston, Massachusetts, which became the capital...

Recently, I was discussing with Beth Shields, the Capital City Museum’s historian, the enigma of Everett Sleet Rigsby. Who was he? A person listening to our conversation asked, “Who was Everett Sleet Rigsby?” Now, asking someone in Frankfort who Everett Sleet Rigsby was, is the same as asking any American, “Who was Bob Ford?” or “Who was Jack McCall?” Every American knows that Bob Ford was the dirty little coward who shot Jesse James in the back of the head as he straightened a picture hanging on the wall in his living room, just as they know that Jack...