Town of the Week, March 14, 1998

Take a visit to Columbia, Kentucky; just listen in.

Columbia, Kentucky

You've heard of the one-horse town; now meet a one-screen town. It's the Columbian, which sits across from the Victorian-style County Courthouse on the town square between Moore's Pool Hall and La Loma Restaurant. The town square in Columbia, Kentucky is really a circle, where traffic fed by three state highways often jams up. Columbia is the seat of Adair County, in southern central Kentucky.

It's located about 40 miles from Lake Cumberland, one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Making clothing has been both a blessing and a curse in this old Kentucky town. Thousands of textile workers were laid off permanently recently when Oshkosh B'Gosh and Fruit of the Loom went south, driving up the town's unemployment rate to more than 19 percent. The largest private employer in this town of 3,800 is Lindsey Wilson College, a United Methodist liberal arts college.

The campus has the most unique building in the area, the John Begley Chapel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright disciple E. Fay Jones. The 180,000 brick chapel is modeled after two farm silos. Back in 1872, Jesse James robbed the Bank of Columbia. The bank still operates as it did then, with hand-written receipts.

Mark Twain's mother was a Columbia native, and there is a local story which claims Samuel Clemons was conceived in Columbia, but she was long gone when the boy was born. In 1956, Adair County High School was the first integrated school system in the state. It remains the home of the high school Indians and Lady Indians. That's our Town of the Week, Columbia, Kentucky.

. . . in 1773, Daniel Boone and his companion McGary left an inscription on a tree six miles west of Columbia. . . . in 1907, a sudden downpour of rain sent a wall of water through the small rural community of Gradyville. Twenty people drowned, and many homes and businesses were destroyed. . . . Kentucky has more miles of running water than any other state except Alaska. The numerous rivers and water impoundments provide 1,100 commercially navigable miles. . . . Mark Twain's mother Jane Lampton, lived in Columbia during her childhood. . . . Henry Giles and his wife Janice Holt Giles, both authors, hail from the Knifley area of Adair County. . . . Elmer Smith, Major League Baseball player who hit the first grand slam in a world series, lived in Columbia upon his retirement. . . . Ed Diddle, former basketball coach of Western Kentucky University and the person Diddle arena at WKU was named for, grew up in the community of Gradyville, Ky. in Adair County.

Columbia-Adair County Tourist Commission 1115 Jamestown Street #3 Columbia, KY 42728 502/384-4401 Columbia-Adair County website Official Kentucky Tourism Guide

Bird: cardinal Fish: Kentucky spotted bass Flower: golden rod Song: "My Old Kentucky Home" Tree: tulip poplar Gem: freshwater pearl Horse: Thoroughbred Silverware pattern: Old Kentucky Bluegrass - The Georgetown pattern

Info for "D'ja Know?" and "Fun Facts" compiled from the Columbia-Adair County website