Hidden Treasure on Old U.S. Highway 68

I can't find the original photo I made of the Meramac Caverns

barn. That one was from directly in front of the barn, and I

didn't see the Rock City sign until later.

 After nearly a month's layoff to take care of my commercial photography business, September 25, 1995 found me back in northeastern Kentucky looking for Rock City barns along U.S. Highways 60 and 68. Using the old file cards once used by the barn painters as my guide, I was having my usual middling success. In general, almost half the sites I visited for this project still had barns on them in varying states of repair, and many barns were, of course, long gone. 

I found one still-standing barn on U.S. 68 in Nicholas County, seven miles south of Blue Lick Springs. The sign had been painted over, but the owner was there in his pickup truck and confirmed that it was indeed a Rock City barn (page 145-D in the Rock City Barns book). Farther up the road I stopped to ask a local resident about another barn on my list. He didn't know of it, but said "There's a little barn about a mile up Old 68 that has some kinda sign on it." 

Much of U.S. 68 through Nicholas County has been rerouted and/or rebuilt, so although I never found the barn I was looking for, I was glad to learn about the old highway alignment and quickly went exploring. It was uphill most of the way, and when I got to the top I found a small barn with a Meramec Caverns sign on the end facing me. 

Meramec Caverns, an attraction in the Ozark Mountains near Stanton, Missouri, has to this day an extensive network of barns painted with their sign over much of the midwest and at least as far south as Manchester, Tennessee. I photographed them whenever I found them as I was working on the Rock City Barns book, and after publication of that book, approached the Meramec Caverns people about doing a book for them. Unfortunately, they weren't interested, but I have a nice collection of photos if they should ever change their minds.

Anyway, I photographed the Meramec sign and went on down the other side of the hill to see what might be there. The road was steep, narrow, and winding, and I couldn't help wondering what it had been like to meet a semi coming down that hill in the old days! 

At the bottom of the hill was the Licking River and a rickety old metal bridge (I thought again of the semis!), and across the bridge an old village consisting of several abandoned, two-story store buildings. To my right a long, new bridge carried new 68 high across the river valley and the little village from the past. 

I haven't been back to that place since the early 2000s, but from what I can see on Google Earth the bridge is still there but the old buildings are gone, replaced by a home or two and a few barns. 

The lost Rock City barn on U.S. Highway 68.

Both photos Canon EOS A2. 28-105 EF lens, Fujichrome 100 film.

 

But going back up the hill, I found my hidden treasure: A long-lost "See Rock City" sign on the back of the barn! (Page 83 in the Rock City Barns book.) 

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(Photographs copyright David B. Jenkins 2020)

Soli Gloria Deo

To the glory of God alone