Recently added to Jefferson National Forest, another link in the chain
of Park-to-Park highways, The Breaks of Big Sandy is the most
picturesque and historic spot in eastern Kentucky. It is located on
State Route 80, just thirty miles from Pikeville where many of the
McCoys live peaceably today. Kentucky, with the mother state Virginia,
is planning a better and broader highway to The Breaks, which will
readily connect it with the Mayo Trail. And the native sons still
dwelling in the hills, aided by their neighbors representing them in
state and federal offices, are busily planning an improvement program
for the area in which The Breaks are embraced.

Once the Dark and Bloody Ground, Kentucky today is fairly teeming with
reawakening. Her people are hastening to bring from hidden coves things
once discarded as fogey. "We aim for this generation to know how thrifty
and apt their forbears were," is frequently heard from their lips. In
historic Levi Jackson Wilderness Road State Park (U. S. 25), near
London, there is an old cider press. Far back in 1790 William Pearl, one
of the early settlers in Laurel County, made and set up the crude press
for making cider, or brandy if he chose. The press rests on a stone base
five feet wide. Happily, Pearl's great-grandson was wise enough to
preserve the relic and present it to the park. Within the park also is
Frazier's Knob, the highest point in the state of Kentucky. On the banks
of Little Laurel flowing through the park one may see an old-time
watermill in full operation. And if you have a bit of imagination you'll
wait your turn and take home a poke of meal and have cornbread for
supper.

Through this region--now The Valley of Parks--Boone blazed his famous
trace and Governor Shelby built the first wagon road through the
wilderness from infant Kentucky to Mother Virginia. Along the way a
pleasant reminder of an almost forgotten past is that of the Wilderness
Road Weavers busy at loom and wheel. They process cloth from wool and
flax before your eyes and explain with care the art of making homemade
dyes from herb and bark. An older woman pauses with shuttle in hand.
"See the hollow tree off yonder, a mother and her babe hid there to
escape the Indians. And the cabin over there with the picketin' fence
around, that's our library now and we've got all sorts of curiosities
there too." A visit within reveals the curiosities to be relics of early
home arts and mountain industries.