This week on Kentucky Life.

19th century photography practices experience a revival in Louisville.

Honor Flight Kentucky hosts its first all-female veteran flight.

An odd border in Kentucky places part of the state north of the Ohio River, and the dazzling spectacle of fluorite minerals at the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum are a sight to behold.

All that coming up on Kentucky Life.

Hey, everybody.

I'm Chip Polston welcoming you back to Kentucky Life, and this beautiful setting here in Cherokee Park.

We are so happy to be back in Louisville.

In fact, our first story comes from right here in the city.

Rudy Salgado is a tintypist based in Louisville, using techniques and equipment from the 19th century, Rudy creates tintype photos of people from all walks of life, blending modern day lifestyles with the historic medium.

We visited Rudy's studio to learn more about this vintage process.

Rudy: Every portrait, I think, tells a story because everyone has their own story, and everyone has a different life, and they have different stories to tell.

You think you know somebody, but you never really know what they're going through, or what they've gone through.

I didn't start in the arts until I was like 21 years old.

While I studied printmaking, I did a whole lot of ceramics and glass blowing as well.

Printmaking processes, like stone lithography, copper plate etching, woodcut, relief printing, screen printing, and then I've been at this since 2019.

This process never stopped, which is really interesting.

Some people would say it stopped, but there were always reenactors and always people that are using this process probably still in Eastern Europe.

After the 1880s, after the Civil War ended, this process kind of became something that would be at fairs or carnivals.

As photography became more affordable and more accessible for everyday means, this process became kind of obsolete relatively quickly.

They say that there's about 600 people in the world that do this regularly.

So, it feels good to be a part of that, but I think what's really exciting is that I could still do this process and still have modern lights and modern scanners.

1-2-3.

Just that conversation between historic processes and the contemporary process.

And I think this process really gives me opportunity to talk to anybody about the process.

And it doesn't matter where we're at, or what we're doing, everyone seems pretty interested in, and I feel lucky and fortunate to be able to share this process with people.

You guys probably know about taking photos on our phone, and that wouldn't be a thing if this process was never invented.

So, this is kind of like -- this is the third major photographic process that was ever invented.

It was invented in 1851.

Frederick Scott Archer invented this process.

He was a coin sculptor.

So, imagine living in the era where you're like, "I'm going to invent this process, so the pictures of my coins look better."

Historically, tintypists are not photographers, right, because photographers are working from a glass plate negative, so they're able to reproduce multiple images from one negative where a tintypist is going to be making one single image.

So, with me not having a background in photography, I like to kind of run with that, and I'm historically a tintypist.

To make a tintype, we need some salted collodion to be specific.

It has two metallic salts in the collodion.

The collodion kind of dries as like a skin or surface, and the collodion is more or less like a vehicle for the metallic salts.

The collodion with the salts will go into the silver nitrate bath for about three to five minutes.

Silver halides will be produced and those are light sensitive.

Those will eventually go into a plate backer that goes into the back of the camera.

I'll pull up the dark side of the slide and take the exposure.

1-2-3.

Wow!

It's like getting punched -in the face with light.

-Kayla: Right.

Rudy: Once I have the plate exposed, I will take it into the dark room, open the plate holder up and then I will grab the plate and I will splash a little bit of developer onto the plate and watch the image develop.

Once it has developed thoroughly, I will stop the development with water, and then that's when it can go out into it, like UV again.

The most exciting process is the next step where we'll take that out into the natural light, and we'll drop that into some fixing solution.

-Kayla: Whoa!

-Marwa: That is crazy.

Rudy: I mean, it's always special, especially that last step of the fixing, like, some people will just really scream in excitement.

1-2-3.

I've had people, men and women, both cry when they see the photos.

Female Speaker: It's so cool.

Look at him.

He looks precious.

Seeing this old photo and I thought it would be a super grainy, like not a well-processed photo and it's probably the best photo I've ever seen of myself.

Marwa: Amazing quality for its time, even for today.

I've never seen myself in that way before where you can't pin a generation to it, or right timelines.

Kayla: And him explaining, digital photos now, it's kind of a reversal.

And I feel like looking at that photo, that's how I see myself.

The thing about this process is you see yourself in the tintype exactly how you see yourself in the mirror.

The camera that I use today is a 1980s Sinar, a 4x5" Large Format Camera.

The lens there is from 1853 and just imagine that lens, and what it's photographed and how many people's eyes it has focused on.

In a way it's being very much like a showman or a roadside attraction, and this is kind of like the perfect place where I can be a mad chemist, be a photographer, and also capture your spirit.

So, if I'm taking my show on the road, I'll take one of my several little portable dark rooms.

I have small dark rooms that are about four by three feet wide.

I think the coolest project that I've got into so far is with my partner, Susanna Crum.

We've been doing this project called "On the Map," and we've documented nine historic locations of post offices in the State of Kentucky.

Some of those are still in operation, some are abandoned, and some are just fields at this point.

Really, you weren't a town until you had a post office and that kind of put you on the map.

So, I'm still finding my own voice in this process because I'm still learning so much about photography, but I will make a tintype now and things will go wrong, and I will understand why they've gone wrong, and for so long, I didn't understand.

I'm really interested to see like where my work goes artistically.

Just like I love making portraits.

It's really fun.

Being a portrait photographer is so far from anything that I ever thought I would do, but it's been really nice to meet all these people.

And every portrait's individual and one of a kind.

For years, Honor Flight of Kentucky has recognized the service veterans in Kentucky have given to their country by taking them on a daylong adventure to Washington, D.C. Now, this past summer, Honor Flight organized a trip for a group of Kentucky veterans often overlooked, though they too have served and wore the uniform of their country.

Visiting the monuments and memorials built to honor those who sacrificed so much for their fellow countrymen, this flight was a special day.

On June 11th, 2022, 134 women veterans from around Kentucky gathered for breakfast at Blue Grass airport.

The beginning of the first all-female veterans trip organized by Honor Flight Kentucky.

Honor Flight's mission is to fly veterans from World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to D.C. for a one day, all-expenses-paid trip to visit the memorials dedicated to their service.

We decided we needed an all-female flight because first of all, it's never been done before in Kentucky, but women deserved that special event to bond with each other in this multi-generational trip to honor their service.

Margaret: I sat at a table and there were eight of us, different services all around.

And there was 130 years combined service to the military for Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines in eight people, which was pretty impressive.

Headed to their plane, these veterans of different generations and conflicts were greeted by members of Rolling Thunder, longtime supporters of Honor Flight holding an American flag high overhead as a sendoff for these women.

Stachia: Touching that flag, the music playing, you feel that tradition in your heart.

All of the memories come back to, Why we were here?

What was our rationale for joining the military?

To support and serve our country, no matter what.

Chip: Smiles and joy turned to somber moments for veterans like Ashley Hawkins of Harrodsburg.

In Iraq, Hawkins earned a Bronze Star with valor in what would become known as the Palm Sunday Ambush when her nine-member unit was called on to hold off over 50 insurgents attacking an American convoy.

As their flight left the terminal, it received a water cannon salute and the voices of these 134 veterans filled the plane.

Patriotic singing continued as the group was greeted at Reagan Airport by the West Point Glee Club.

The first stop for these veterans was the women's memorial for military service dedicated at Arlington Cemetery in 1997.

Each would receive a plaque inducting them into the museum.

Ashley: So, we inducted every single one of them into the women's memorial for military service in Arlington.

One of the memorials that is dedicated solely to female service.

I think that was very special for them.

Chip: Following lunch was a solemn moment for all veterans as it is with all Americans, The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This special Honor Flight would visit the World War II Memorial, and then it was onto the Lincoln Memorial.

While appreciating all the hours Ashley Brueggemann, and her organization of volunteers had put into their trip, everyone was overwhelmed at how at every stop, there were groups greeting and honoring these women who had served their country.

Male Speaker: Thank you for your service, welcome.

It almost makes you want to cry because it's so truly emotional to see the people that care so much to be right there in front of you.

All the other veterans standing and supporting you.

Chip: Flanking the famed reflecting pool extending before Abraham Lincoln are memorials to those who served in Korea and Vietnam.

Many on this Honor Flight remember what their service meant to them and to others.

Carolyn: I always look back on my service and look at all the amazing things I got to do.

You know, I got to build schools for girls that got to enjoy those schools for 20 years, and what I hope to believe is that those girls in Afghanistan, there's 20 years of education for those women right there.

Chip: Perhaps the most moving moment of the day was a wreath-laying ceremony at the statue dedicated to the nurses who served in Vietnam.

The names of eight nurses are etched forever on the wall.

Frankie Zalaznik of Lexington was a nurse in Vietnam who found herself crawling under enemy fire across her medical compound to get to wounded soldiers needing her help.

Along with fellow Kentuckians, Marge Graves and Cathy Grambeck, they remembered the legacy of the women who put their lives in harm's way.

All my Vietnam friends who are no longer alive, all the men we took care of that didn't make it, didn't hit me until they played Taps.

I had to hold myself together.

Cathy: I think we're the only two here that's from our units.

For me to get to be a part of that.

and watch Frankie take the wreaths to the Vietnam memorial, and being able to kind of sharing her memories too, it was nice to be able to be a part of that.

Chip: This Honor Flight had one last stop, the Marine Memorial of Iwo Jima where they were greeted by a 21-gun salute.

Again, it was a moment that connected each veteran with all the women who had worn our country's uniform.

Linda: It's been the most amazing, well-planned, thoughtful day ever.

I spent most of my military career alone and I've been able to spend it amongst all these amazing women with their own amazing stories, and just it's been overwhelmingly fabulous.

Chip: Back on the plane, after a 15-hour trip, this all-female flight would have one more welcome.

Upon disembarking at Blue Grass terminal, they found it filled with a cheering crowd thanking them for their service and saying, "Welcome home."

Ashley: Their comments afterwards were that they weren't even welcomed home like that when they returned from deployment.

And so, it was the...

It sealed the deal for the day in letting them know that they are appreciated, and that their service mattered.

Most Kentuckians think of the Ohio River as Kentucky's northern border, all the way from Ashland to Paducah.

But did you know there's a small part of Kentucky north of the Ohio?

Now, you might be asking yourself how in the world is that possible?

Well, let's take a trip downstream to Henderson to find out.

Chuck: In a lot of places, rivers divide geographic boundaries, and in a lot of places rivers divide states.

But if you drive up U.S. 41 North from Henderson, Kentucky, and you cross the Ohio River, you're still in Kentucky.

You go about another mile before you see a 'Welcome to Indiana' sign, and this all goes back over 225 years to 1792 when Commonwealth of Virginia finally agreed to let Kentucky separate from Virginia and become its own state, the 15th state in the Union, and Virginia at the time defined the northern boundary of Kentucky as the low-water mark of the north shore of the Ohio River.

At the time, the land that is just across the river from northern Henderson County was an island.

It was called Green River Island.

It's just downstream from the Green River, and there was a northern channel above the Green River Island and that was judged in 1792 to be the northern boundary.

Evidently over the years, it silted in.

Some people wonder whether an earthquake might have played a role in it, I've seen no documentation of it.

Any sign of there being a channel now is pretty much gone, but still there's these 2,000 acres of Kentucky stranded on the north shore of the Ohio River.

For the longest time, it was just farmland.

In 1922, some investors from Henderson County built a racetrack on Green River Island.

And they weren't trying to be sneaky, they were just trying to be closer to the larger population center in Evansville, Indiana, which is six or eight or ten times larger than the population of Henderson, Kentucky.

They wanted to be close to the market.

Things got even more interesting in the 1930s and 1940s because gambling became pretty wide open in Henderson, Kentucky.

Henderson was one of three or four cities in the state where gambling was pretty wide open.

There were four gambling establishments on Green River Island.

Again, quite close to the population of Evansville, as close to downtown Evansville as it was to downtown Henderson.

The two best known, one of them was the Trocadero.

The Club Trocadero opened in 1939, a two-story, masonry building, and it was a class establishment.

A gentleman had to wear a coat and tie to get in.

Unaccompanied women were not permitted to be in, it was a couple's place.

Huge dance hall, they booked the biggest big bands in the country, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Harry James.

It was fine food, good drinks.

Oh, and a casino room or two.

So, if the Trocadero was a place where men were in coat and ties, The Dells were the places where the gamblers were probably wearing bib overalls, rougher crowd, rougher place, pretty notorious.

The sheriff in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, fumed at what was going on, the fights and the petty thefts that would take place.

He had no authority to do anything, and the Henderson County authorities had no interest in doing anything, which also kind of contributed to that reputation of it being a no man's land.

Gambling finally got broken up in the early 1950s.

The Trocadero closed.

All you can see at The Dells is just the concrete pad foundation.

There's no sign of the other joints that are on there, just the memories of those wide-open days.

Fluorspar mining was once a booming industry in western Kentucky where fluorite minerals were extracted and shipped around the world to make steel and thousands of other products we use every day.

But when the industry died out, thanks to foreign competition, a Crittenden County mining magnate converted his collection of colorful fluorite mineral specimens into the subject of our next story, the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum.

Look at this one.

Look!

Jill: This is the Ben E. Clement Mineral Museum.

Almost everything in the museum is local minerals from Kentucky and Illinois.

Most of it is district Fluorite.

The district is very unique as a mining district and geologically speaking, not just here in North America, but in the world.

The conditions to precipitate these crystals are very specific, and you change one thing minutely in it and it just changes the crystal and the crystal structure exponentially.

So, for these things to occur, the way they did is very chance -- very, very chance.

Jill: It forms in cubes.

The cubes have a natural octahedron inside.

The colors range anywhere from clear to blue to green to yellow to purple.

You even get some butterscotch, some root beer colors, all different colors.

We do have several fluorescent specimens, but I think the most amazing thing about fluorite is just the fact that nature forms things in such amazing ways.

Ed Clement and his sister Anne got together with the City of Marion, and they loaned the collection to put in a museum to celebrate their father's life.

This is truly a world class museum put together by a labor of love with a vision from a man that was directly involved in those early production and exploitation of this mineral.

Thurman: He was born and raised down near Nashville.

He was born in 1891.

He came here in 1919 after World War I.

He had joined the Air Force in World War I because he wanted to fly combat and his whole family, I understand, was not happy about it.

But the day he got his wings, the war ended, and they were happy, but he wasn't because that's what he wanted to do.

And he came here in 1919 to find out about fluorite.

Bo: Thanks to Ben Clement's vision and the implementation by his son, Ed, this labor of love right here is preserved marvelously, the legacy that's still captured here.

The earliest use recognized was by the American Indians, of course, for jewelry and different ceremonial trinkets, and they mined it off the surface out where it was deposited on the riverbanks.

These faults that occur in here were exposed on the riverbanks and those colors draw people.

So, the early fur trappers that came in here to trade with the Indians made note of that also, and later, people who wanted to enterprise, came in here and opened up mines adjacent to those sites, and then it filtered out on into the countryside.

The earliest stuff that they were after, of course, was silver.

Early-on, they threw the fluorite out of way because there was no market for it.

Late 1870s, early 1880s, they discovered that fluorite was a perfect flux if you might say for making a better grade of steel.

Of course, we're in the iron ore area here in West Kentucky, being on the rivers and the iron business, doing what it was doing in Ohio and Pennsylvania up east, it made us at a perfect location to be able to ship that stuff by river, up there to them where they can make a better steel.

Oh, my gosh!

This is so pretty.

Jill: The children's groups that we have coming -- We have a lot of school groups, that's educational for the children as far as the geology of the area, as far as the local minerals, everything they learn about the world that they live in.

We have the biggest collection of fluorite on display in the world.

All the children love this place.

They come walking that door and their eyes get big and it stays that way until they leave.

"Do you know what they used fluorite for?"

That's the thing I ask everybody first, very -- some gets the actual answer.

Everything from toothpicks to atomic bomb is made with fluorite.

I enjoy the groups I take through everything from preschool to college.

It's just a good place.

Well, look around you, you can see the beauty of these minerals that are in here.

It's hard to believe that one man could collect so many minerals.

We've only got a third on display here, at any given time with this collection.

Jill: What I love about being here is keeping this alive for future generations.

I'm all about the kids.

I go out and dig fossils for all the children's programs here.

Anything to keep the doors open, I will do just to help this stay alive for future generations.

I mean, this was like a passion for me at the age of five.

And going through life and -- you know, you get busy working and making a living.

But when I retired, it was already waiting for me.

So, I started traveling again, digging again, and to be the first person on earth to see this beauty coming out of the ground, it's just an amazing, amazing thing.

It's like nature's gift.

We've had a wonderful time back here in the absolutely spectacular Cherokee Park.

We still hope you've had a good time with us as well.

I'm Chip Polston and I am cherishing this Kentucky life, but before I go, I'm going to take one last loop through the park.

We'll leave you with this moment.