Coming up on Kentucky Life, our special on Eastern Kentucky, highlights flood relief efforts and the resiliency of Appalachians, an abandoned YMCA sits in Russell, Kentucky and holds memories of a bygone era.

A painter from Bath County draws on her childhood to showcase the people of Eastern Kentucky and a photographer from West Liberty dedicates his life to capturing the beautiful scenery and terrain of Appalachia.

All that and more coming up on Kentucky Life.

Hey, everybody and welcome to our Eastern Kentucky special here on Kentucky Life.

I'm your host Chip Polston, and today, we're at the really remarkable Highlands Museum and Discovery Center here at Ashland.

There is so much to see and take in here and we're just getting started.

But let's go ahead and start things off.

In July 2022, a flood of historic proportions devastated Eastern Kentucky.

Over the course of more than five days, more than 14 inches of rain saturated the region, leaving widespread and catastrophic damage in its wake.

And stranding entire communities without water, power, and in some cases, even their homes.

In the days, weeks, and months that followed, people from around the region came together to support their neighbors who had lost everything.

And in the process, demonstrated the strong sense of hard work, resiliency and care that exists in these mountain communities.

[river burbling] Matthew: You can tell how high this water has gone by the debris lawn.

And you think of how much water it took to fill that up.

As you can see what's left of these homes that were sitting down here, there were multiple.

Just a pile of wood.

First few hours after the flood, I mean, the only way I can describe it was chaos.

A lot of people frantically scrambled around trying to save what possessions they could and ultimately trying to save their lives.

Kentucky State Police received over 130 missing persons complaints as well as over 1,000 welfare checks for individuals in the community that we serve.

Going out in the community and seeing the devastation that took place is just absolutely horrible.

You know, I've traveled around the state and worked in different places, you know tornadoes hit Western Kentucky, that was an awful, awful event.

But this is different.

This is home.

These people here, they've been through a lot, they're tough people.

They've had to fight their entire lives.

It's a very poor community.

However, that doesn't take away from the caliber of people that live here.

Jerry: For me, this is home.

I moved here when I was five years old and that was the beginning of a love affair with this little town.

We have been flooding here for 100 years.

And so, flooding in and of itself is not something unusual.

As a matter of fact, we had three floods earlier this year before this last one came.

And so flooding in and of itself is not a traumatic experience.

This last one was of historic proportions.

For two weeks, we actually did our flood recovery with volunteers out of the Wayland gym.

We operated that thing from 8:00 o'clock in the morning till some evenings.

It was 10:00, 11:00 o'clock.

And then we're back at it the next day for two weeks, even on weekends.

And that was all volunteers.

That was people here in town, helping each other.

People were just reaching out to others and saying, what can I do to help you?

And then they did their homes, mucked out the mud with shovels and things.

And I think that's where they ought to be.

Neighbor helping neighbor, friends helping friends, family helping family.

Gwen: My family is about eight generations deep right here, eight generations.

So this is home.

I got friends who say, why don't you come to Atlanta?

You can make a lot more money in Atlanta.

But I don't want to go nowhere.

I just want to, I just want to be here.

It's been, it's been hard right here.

It's been, really -- You had to put your thinking cap on to try to problem solve.

The Hillbilly Ingenuity is the ability to make, do, and improvise and make something out of almost nothing.

We got this distribution center here and we provided showers for the community and for our own use.

So those showers out there are made from cheap fixtures and pop and five-gallon buckets, and black plastic and table force.

They're really functional.

First morning, we got those things rigged up and I came down and I had been bathing in a pan for like seven days.

I came down here and I heated me up some water, got up there and poured it in the bucket and got in that shower, and soaked my hair up.

And it was just so luxurious, even though it was makeshift.

It's just took a lot of people to take care of everybody.

But I think we've kind of succeeded.

I mean that's pretty amazing with the amount of water that we had in the devastation.

Jerry: I think there's something resilient about mountain people that live in these hills.

We've been conditioned to kind of do things on our own.

When disasters hit, we tend to take care of ourselves and help our neighbors.

We are tough.

Matthew: The people of Eastern Kentucky are very resilient in the sense that they don't give up.

We get back to the corner, that's the time to fight.

And the flood said, Put us in a corner and we're ready to fight back and, and do what we have to do to make sure that we thrive moving forward from this.

Chip: In Russell Kentucky, an abandoned building holds the memories and stories of a bygone era.

The once popular Railroad YMCA served its community as a place to sleep, eat, play sports and more.

Originally built to house railroad workers, the now decaying empty shell of this beloved destination is all that remains.

Larry: This place was socially very connected to Russell.

There was just a lot of stuff here.

They sponsored the baseball leagues here.

There was a bowling alley in there.

There was all kinds of recreational things that they sponsored.

So they were a big part of the community, and probably the most prominent thing here is everyone came here to eat.

The food was good.

It was kind of homemade.

If you talk to anyone here of any age, they would tell you about eating at the YMCA.

The reason this place is here is to house railroad men, and guys would come in off.

You know, the, the big part of the railroad business here, it was taking empty cars down in the Southeastern Kentucky, filling them up with coal, bringing them back up here full, and distributing throughout the country or outside the country as well.

Bill: Well, I mean, this was a home away from home for many of these railroaders.

And you know, like I said, the rooms are not that big, but they were just sleeping overnight anyways.

Part of the problem, it hurt the building itself is when the railroad started putting guys up in motel rooms and always when they would leave from here going on Lexington and or going to the Columbus Inn.

When I got there, I got to stay in a hotel.

And so, you know, so the guys that came here started demanding that they want the same treatment.

You know it's better room from the motel than it is here.

But the thing that was nice about here is you had your food and newspapers and magazines and anything else that would, you know, lay over.

But that was started -- I feel that was just start of the end of it.

We had 167 employees.

It was a 24-hour shift.

The doors did not have locks on.

You could not lock in the exterior doors in this building.

It was known around the clock for biscuits and gravy and fried chicken.

And after hours on Friday and Saturday night, we had to have security in the Cafeteria because the drunks would come over and just get loud, not so much cause trouble would just get very loud.

And it became a pillar of our community for so many different settings from eating to sleeping, to living, to the divorce.

If you got divorced, you moved in here where we have no local hotels at that time.

This was kind of the hotel for our community too.

When we lost this, we lost a huge part of our community.

As bad as we hate to see it, we'd rather be taken down.

I mean, I don't want to see it in this kind of condition.

It's, it's just bad, I mean it-- Like I said, it was always full of life and there was always something to do.

You can always come down here and find something to get into or something to do and that kept you going.

Chip: What we're really enjoying our time here at the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland, with us now is the curator of the museum.

This is Heather Whitman.

Heather, fantastic facility - you have here.

- Oh.

Thank you so much.

So, what is the, the origin story of the place?

How did all this come about?

It was a group of citizens.

A gentleman named Mike Boateng moved here for work and he was like, "Wherever I've lived, there's always been a history museum.

This town needs one."

So he got a group of people together.

It was realtors, bankers, architects, all kinds of people that just loved history and they got it going.

It started out in a historic mansion on Bath Avenue.

They were able to use it free, which is given to them for a few years.

And then eventually we moved here - in the early '90s.

- Right.

And the, the area that we're in right now, the Country Music Heritage Hall.

You had told us earlier that Keith Whitley exhibit, the people would travel here to see that after his passing.

There's a great section here on the Judds.

Have you seen a lot of interest in that since Naomi Judds' passing?

Heather: Oh, yes.

Right after it happened, we got many phone calls and messages.

People wanted to know if we still had that exhibit.

They remembered seeing it before and they wanted to come see it again.

We've had people who were like, "You know, I'm so glad this is here.

You know I had no idea you had an exhibit on the Judds."

So it's just a great thing to have this is kind of a memory for her.

And one other thing in here that I think is really neat.

Ashlyn was the center of a worldwide music craze back in the 1990s and you've got probably the coolest piece of memorabilia from it.

Tell us about that.

We have the outfit that Billy Ray Cyrus wore for the music video for his first hit, My Achy Breaky Heart.

And it's just a great piece.

It was worn at the Paramount Arts Center which is right down the street from us and that's where they filmed the music video and we even have the mullet on.

Chip: I was going to say, he's gonna get the mullet Chip: with it, it's terrific Heather: Yes, he's ready to go.

Chip: That's great.

So when folks come here, Heather, what do you want them to take away?

What do you want them when they're leaving that you want them to be able to remember about this?

My hope is if they're not familiar with Ashlyn history that they will learn something unexpected.

Like "Gosh, I had no idea that came from Ashlyn that started there."

If they are familiar with Ashlyn history, I hope they'll leave with something they didn't know.

Like, "Oh, I had no idea.

New information."

That's, that's our goal I think.

Well, you've done a tremendous job capturing everything through here, you really have.

Heather Whitman, curator of the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center.

Thanks so much - for being with us.

- Thank you.

Appalachia is known for its people and their unique qualities from the way they talk to their mannerisms.

Appalachians almost have a language of their own.

This next story follows an artist from Bath County.

Sierra Evans is a painter who draws from her childhood and the people she grew up around in order to showcase the uniqueness of Appalachians in her work.

Let's take a look.

Ceirra: The stories that I'm trying to tell in my paintings are where the place that you grew up and your raising can be both a place of comfort and pain.

And I think with that, there's a lot of stories that you know, especially in Appalachia, I find that like a lot of the art that's made within Appalachia sometimes only tells about the poverty, it only tells about these hardships that are still obviously going on, I mean, you know, we got to take a look at the reality.

But also I think that the main thing that I try to do, at least in, you know, one in every three paintings that I do is tell a happy story.

Tell something that actually like fills me up like this sort of positive optimistic outlook on Eastern Kentucky, because I think for too long, too many people look at it with a cynical lens.

My name is Ceirra Evans.

I am a painter.

I'm from Bath County, Kentucky, which is a Northeastern part of Kentucky.

Growing up there, I grew up in a household with a single mother and a brother, and a sister.

And that to me was what really made me realize how different life was for me than maybe other people I met throughout the state because I think there's so much sacrifice that you have to watch through your parents and there's so much sacrifice you have to watch through the community at large.

To me, that's where I really started to kind of put my finger on like, you know, "What's the problem here, you know, what's the problem here, how can we fix that?

Why are people not living like this?

Why, why, why, why is so much depression entering this area?"

And I mean, that's, that's obviously, you know, maybe looking at with a very critical lens, but I think the happiness that I found within Eastern Kentucky is obviously family.

There's nothing like family for me.

I think a lot of my friends would describe me as a loyal person.

And I think it's because of where I was raised.

The subjects that I think are the most interesting for me to paint are my family and the people that are from my community in Bath County, that you know, share those stories that I try to tell.

I think with those people who I love painting them, is just you know, I'm able to tell the truth through them and they're, you know, they're the original storytellers.

They're the people that told me all the stories that I try to tell on the canvas.

They're the people that have the sacrifices that I try to paint.

And you know, I think it's really interesting to paint sort of like generations in a way.

And so, I try to fill up, I try to fill up my canvases with, with my family and trusted friends.

I think I, I, I embrace, I embrace the stereotypes.

But I, I think what I try to do whenever I embrace the stereotypes is use humor for the people that look at those paintings that maybe aren't from the area.

That way, it really kind of catches them off guard.

And I think also kind of takes back what everybody has said about Eastern Kentuckians and what everybody said Appalachia at large.

You know, I think for the longest time I tried to reject where I was raised and tried to run away from it.

And then at some point I found that that's what made me special.

I think one of the biggest stereotypes that you find within Eastern Kentucky is the outlaw.

And the sort of like Hillbilly outlaw that's like ready to run away from the law and you know, all this, you know, drinking in the midday, you know, lazy.

But specifically the idea of the outlaw I think it's so interesting because I grew up with outlaws.

I feel like I'm an outlaw whenever it comes to my past.

To me, you know, I find that those people, they get the most judgment, and they get the harshest critique.

And I think people don't understand how much generosity those people are filled with or how much room for love that they have.

To me, that's like that's where the heart is of it all.

That's where the heart of those of embracing that stereotype of the outlaw is.

My, my relationship with my family and in my childhood and working through those past experiences, I find that artwork has very much been a therapy for me.

Being able to put these stories out there, and being able to paint the people that are in my life.

The way that I want to paint them, the way that I see them in my mind has been a way of finding forgiveness for those people and finding space for them to, I mean, reenter my life.

And I think with that, with those people coming back into my life, it's very much like a love letter to Kentucky.

I think, you know, for the longest time I was so cynical about where I was from and then being able to, really being able to paint those people allowed me to love Kentucky again.

And that's like, to me, it's like each time I, each time I paint something, I'm finding something new that I love about it.

I hope that whenever people look at my paintings, if they're from Eastern Kentucky by God, I hope that they love the representation that I give.

And I hope that they see themselves within my story.

If they are not, and they don't understand the niche, you know, sort of elements that I'm putting into, into the story, and or even the story at large, ask yourself why you don't understand that and ask yourself why you're different from this region and why this region is the way it is.

And maybe it'll aid you into understanding, being a little bit more forgiving and understanding the region.

I think to be Appalachian and what it means to be Appalachian, obviously, you know, we think about Appalachia as a geography and to me that can be very limiting.

But to me, with the people that inhabit these regions, what connects everybody is this idea of sacrifice.

And that's kind of sad to think about.

But I think, the thing that I have found the commonality that I found in the people that are from Eastern Kentucky is they know how to get by and they know how to enjoy the little things.

To me, that's like the greatest religion of all is, you know, to enjoy the little things.

I think that's like the one thing that I've, I've found that I've connected with, with everybody within Eastern Kentucky and in Appalachia at large is that sacrifice and that willingness to, willingness to give even.

Appalachia is renowned for its beautiful scenery and terrain.

Whether it's the mountains in the valleys or the many lakes and creeks that fill eastern Kentucky, the natural elements of this area are truly something else.

For this next story, we'll follow Appalachian photographer, Dean Hill.

A man who has dedicated his life to capturing the beauty of Eastern Kentucky.

[birds chirping] I'm pretty basic with my photography.

I've only got one camera body, two lenses.

I let Mother Nature do the work for me.

That means I have to be outdoors during inclement weather, rainstorms, snowstorms, cold weather, foggy weather, whatever.

If I'm in the elements when all of that is real dynamic, I will get a good photograph.

My name is Dean Hill.

I do fine art photography of mainly Appalachia.

I'm from this area which is Eastern Kentucky, Relief, Kentucky.

I first got into it when I was just a young kid using like a pocket camera or one of the handheld instamatic that you hold then it shows the photograph upside down in it, that my family owned.

First time I took, I picked up the camera was just for fun.

It was myself, some friends.

We were going out exploring, hiking at the Gorge, or wherever.

And we were just photographing each other or the landscape and just doing it for fun.

Photographing now, as opposed to when I was, say, a younger kid, when I ran the hills and camped, and hiked, fished this area, it actually brought me back to a whole new level because when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to get away from this area.

I wanted, not that it was bad, but I wanted to explore.

That involved several trips Southwest, the peace corp, several more trips in Southeast Asia.

And when I came back to Eastern Kentucky, I had a whole new outlook on life here.

And the landscapes, everything, look refreshed, new, different.

And that just pulled me into wanting to explore even more.

[mandolin playing] I think Appalachia is an interesting subject because of, one, the people that are by growing up here, it's a special culture that you can only find in this region.

There are some places that are close to it, but these people are close to the land, the mountains, it's a harsh environment to be living in.

Yet they somehow eke out a living.

It's beautiful country, it does get abused every now and then.

But for some reason, Appalachia endeavors to persevere, you might say, still got its beauty.

And I want to do everything I can to capture that beauty for people that's here, people away from here that don't understand where it come.

[birds chirping] In a sense, photography is therapeutic and it gets me out in nature.

It gets me into a place where I don't have to get anything and still have a good day.

Kind of like fishing, I guess.

Worst day of fishing is better than the best day at work.

Yet, my working tells me to be out fishing all the time.

So I'm fishing for a photograph.

If I don't get it, that's fine, I've had a good day.

If I do get something then I'm happy.

What does it mean to be Appalachian?

That's a tough one in a way because it's second nature to me because I'm born and raised here.

So I just take it for granted that I am Appalachian.

Anywhere I go, I'm from the mountains.

I'm from Appalachia.

The first time I left this country, I didn't really want to lean toward being an Appalachian.

But the further away I got the more I realized that being Appalachian is probably unique.

It's people from Appalachia when you're around them very long, you see that there's a uniqueness about them and it will be that language, their mannerism.

They take a pride in where they're from.

So I do that now.

If I was going to describe Appalachia, beauty, beauty, beyond beauty, I'm going to call it.

That's simple.

[birds chirping] Well, we hope you've enjoyed this special look at Eastern Kentucky, here on Kentucky Life.

Many, many thanks to the great folks at the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center here in Ashland.

If you're ever in the area and you get a chance, be sure you check it out.

For now, we'll leave you with this moment.

Until next time.

I'm Chip Polston, cherishing this Kentucky Life.