This past weekend, my family and I (most of them), headed down to Mom’s family reunion in Albany, Kentucky. The Thomas family are those on my grandma’s side of the family. That part of my family has lived just above 76 Falls! They have had homes there since before my grandma Larison was a little girl.

Up until a few years ago, the house on the same side of the road as 76 Falls belonged to my great-aunt Lizzie. She and her husband had a house that was just next door to where my great-grandparents lived. That house was taken by a tornado. As hilly as it is in that area, there have been at least 2 tornadoes that have taken homes and lives there.

One thing we stopped to look at again this year, is a 4′ wide horse watering trough that has been wrapped around a tree nearby for some 40 years. It is still in the tree! Lots of strange and horrifying stories about the twisters.

Today, my great-aunt Lizzie’s house is a rental and it is no longer owned by the family (yet). I know my wife and I would love to see us family go in together to try to buy it back to keep it in the family. Too much history.

While at the reunion, we met a relative who had a collection of arrowheads that looked much like the set that my great-aunt used to own. Perhaps they were hers? The collection is amazing, 100s of arrowheads and knives (see Flickr set). All are supposed to have been found around the 76 falls area.

The lake is still very low. Several years ago, the state decided to drop the lake depth considerably to work on the earthen dam at Wolf Creek. So the lake lost about 30-40 feet of water! 76 Falls was named as it was about 76 feet from top to bottom of the then creek bed. After the lake went in many years ago, the falls were just over half their original height. There used to be house boats motoring around under the water of the falls. Not any more. The water is only about 10 feet or so deep and the old creek bed is once again fully visible.

After the reunion, Rachel, the kids and I, went to see Cumberland Falls Resort where my 3 brothers were staying. It was supposed to be about an hour away, but was more like and hour and a half. So we drove out there, and back in the same night. We got to see the lodge there (amazingly cool log-constructed lodge), got to swim in their pool, and had dinner at the lodge. It was Levi’s birthday, so I got him a brownie with a candle. :^)

While there we read about the Big Southfork Railroad and ended up back the next day to ride the train before heading home. The train was owned by the Stearns Coal & Lumber Company established in 1902, and was in business until the 1970s. The train ride was on property they owned. The Stearns also helped to establish the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway, which runs through the area of the station at Stearns,

• Currently the railway is powered by a diesel locomotive, but the railway is slowing restoring an old steam locomotive for future trips
• They are about 64% done with the restoration, but are taking donations if you would like to help them
• More on the Big Southfork Railway at their site

We left Stearns and the train around 5:30 p.m. Sunday night, and got home at 11:00. LOTS of driving this weekend!! Check out the Flickr set above for photos of the trip.