Evernote; Don’t search for Lost Treasure without It!

 Every fall I love to get into the mountains and enjoy my favorite hobby of treasure hunting.   One of the unique uses of Evernote I have found is  to organize my treasure  hunting research.   Weather I am out in the mountains, in the library, or at  home all my treasure hunting research is always with me in Evernote.

     For the past 30 years I have  had a hobby of looking for John Swift’s Lost Silver Mine.  Searching for  the silver mine began when my grandfather and I would take long walks in the woods when I was in my early teens.  Since  that time I  have kept notebooks, copies of articles and stories and maps of the many geographic areas concerning the silver mine legend.  Keeping track  of all the research and stories concerning the silver mine has been a  very tedious task.  In the early 1990′s I began keeping all the notes  in a  word processing program and retyping a lot of the print material into the word processor so I could search my data by key word.  I also had hundreds of photographs that I have taken of unique rock cravings and treasure signs, that were stored in photo albums.  Then came Evernote!

     With Evernote all this became a simple process.   I began using Evernote in my law practice and day-to-day life, then one day it occurred to me to put all my “Swift Stuff” into evernote.  It was actually an easy because I had been  scanning a lot of the articles and other materials into PDF files ever since I bought my ScanSnap scanner about 4 years ago.

     First I scanned  every piece of paper and picture I had regarding the silver mine with the ScanSnap.   I even scanned my hand written journals and notes.   Evernote’s  software will even search your handwriting.   Evernote also allows you to create an image note, so I loaded all my photos of rock cravings and places  associated with the legend.   Then it  is a simple  matter of sending it to Evernote or just dragging and dropping it into the Evernote desktop.

     I have Evernote  on my Android Phone, my iPad, by laptop and my office computer and they all sync seamlessly.   Perhaps one of the best  uses of Evernote is taking a snapshot (picture) directly in Evernote with my phone and then being able to view every photograph I have when I am  in the mountains searching for the Swift Treasure.   I can get to my whole Swift Treasure reference library from anywhere.

     Evernote is great to use while doing research on the internet.  When I find that great article for an old  newspaper or magazine online I can send it right into Evernote.  Evernote has a web clipper for most browsers that allows you to clip web pages  directly into Evernote.

     You can also share your notes or whole notebooks with others, even if they do not have an Evernote account.  A link to one of my Swift Notes can be viewed here straight from my Evernote account.

     If you want more information on the Swift story you can find Mike Steely’s excellent book here.  Also Ed Henson has written an excellent fiction novel entitled Swift which you can find here.

     Evernote is free for the first 60 Mg of data for every 30 day cycle, but you can upgrade to the premium account.  Personally, I have never needed to upgrade,  but I can see it happening soon because I use Evernote for  everything!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A Great Day to Get Wet!

Sunday, July 10th,  2011, was a beautiful day in Elkhorn City and a good day for our little tourism industry.  Ratliff’s Hole was full of people using the Russell Fork River.  I saw 42 different paddlers in the river and 50 plus swimmers.   The most interesting sight was the two folks using an air mattress and running down the river from the put in down to the play hole.  They were having a blast, as was everyone using the river that today.

Last week, I saw two boaters from Alaska eating at the Rusty Fork Cafe.  This morning I saw 13 boaters eating at the Rusty Fork.  Today the license plates in the parking lot where from Fayette County, Jefferson County, Letcher County, Boyd  County, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

     What amazes me about this is I saw about  8 locals at Ratliff’s Hole and only two of them using the river.  Everyone else was  out of county or out-of-state.  Just like a prophet is not known in his or her hometown, the cleanest and most beautiful river in the eastern United States isn’t either.  It makes me sad that we have such  a great asset and it seems that most of the local people have no appreciation for  it.  Well, I guess they are all in South Carolina keeping Myrtle Beach in business.  I heard that at the end of the month of July, South Carolina has  to bring in the heavy equipment just to get the coal dust off the beach!

     Another  area of adventure tourism Elkhorn City is seeing some benefits from is the Transamerica  76 cross-country bike Trail.   Today, I also saw 5 bicyclists coming through town on the Transamerica Trail.  Earlier in the week a group of 10 came through and a couple  of them had some mechanical breakdowns.  This has happened a lot this year.  It really points out the need for a small bicycle shop in town.  We used to have one back in the early 1990′s and it did pretty well.  In fact, I bought my bicycle from “Bike Mike” at the Mountain Bike Shop.  It was next to the post office on one side of the old Western Auto  building.

Today reinforced to me they need for the Elkhorn City to develop the Russell Fork River in its downtown.  The Elkhorn City Area Heritage Council has a detailed plan regarding a whitewater in river play park for the downtown area.  I can imagine 100 times  the activity I saw today at Ratliff’s Hole right in the middle  of  downtown Elkhorn City when it is completed.  You can find the plan here and it is well worth the read.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here’s Your Sign … or Where are all the signs!

Today I met a  nice gentlemen named Andre’ from France.  He and his wife were biking across the United States along the Transamerica Trail.  They had stayed at the Breaks Interstate Park and made it into Elkhorn City about 11:00 a.m.  Every year I talk to numerous bicyclists who come through Elkhorn City along the trail.

My conversation with Andre’ was insightful for two reasons.  One, I enjoy talking to and meeting new people, especially form other countries, and two, Andre’ could not figure out why the TransAmerica Trail had good signage all along the route in Virginia, but as soon as he got into Kentucky there where no signs at all showing the route.

When the trail was first developed, in 1976, there was good signage all along the trial in Eastern Kentucky.  I can remember seeing the signs and I also remember bicyclists staying in the basement of the Elkhorn City Church of Christ.

This brought home to me the fact that we need to do more work to develop our adventure tourism infastructure in Kentucky.    Replacing the signs along the Kentucky section of the Transamerica Trail makes good sense.  It is the type of project that adds value to our tourism infastruture and would not be expensive to complete.  Governor Beasher has made a big push for adventure tourism, it seems to me  that replaces the signs along the Transamerica Trail is a no brainer.

If you feel  the same  way contact  the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and let them know we need to put up signs for our tourist who use the Transamerica Trail.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

Division of Multimodal Programs

125 Holmes Street, 3rd Floor

Frankfort, Kentucky 40622

502-564-7433

The Transportation Cabinet has put out a nice pdf document on Bicycling in Kentucky and all the Bike Trials in the state you can find it HERE

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10 Things Elkhorn Must do to Thrive!

Downtown Elkhorn City

10 Things Elkhorn Must do to Thrive!

Here is my list of things that Elkhorn City should do to Thrive.  Elkhorn City needs to prepare for new US 460 and be ready to capitalize on its construction and make sure people take the Elkhorn City exit.

This list is no holds barred.  Some of my close friends will not like some of items on this list, but in my opinion they still need to be done.  Some will notice some big topics are missing from this list, but rest assured, if we can get these things done swimming pools and other great things will come.

1.      Establish a Local Tourism and Convention Commission.

2.      Establish a comprehensive Zoning Plan

3.      Elkhorn City must continue to Annex Key property around the new US 460.

a.       All state owned property should be  annexed and more of John Moores Branch.

b.     The City should annex all the way up  Little Beaver Creek along the ridge between Beaver and Ferrells Creek.

c.      The City should annex all of Dunleary Bottom and both of the hollow at Dunleary.  Jesse Rowe  will sign into the City by agreement.

4.      Elkhorn City must clean up!

a.      The City Streets must be clean.  This needs to be a regular maintenance project.  We have been doing pretty good, but more can be done.  The Stone Company needs to pinch in here as well as the Coal Companies.

b.      The dilapidated buildings.  Some were done before the last election.  This needs to continue.

5.      Elkhorn City must reassess property tax values.  This has to be done.  There are too many pieces of property that are being held on too with tax values of 3000.00 – 5000.00 but if you ask for a price to buy the lot the owners wants 75,000.00.  I know this has happened to me on 4 different occasions.  Allowing this to happen robs Elkhorn City of its potential.

6.      Elkhorn City must get a Community Development Block Grant and develop Pine and Main Streets.  This has been talked about for years.  It has to be done now.  The City needs to move the City Hall and County office to Main Street or Pine Street.  This will help foot traffic downtown.

7.      Once the Local Tourism and Convention Commission is established Elkhorn City must pass a 3% restaurant tax.  This tax under state law can only be used to market the town and sustained the Tourism Commission.  The restaurants do not pay the tax, the patrons do.  I have never understood why people go to Pikeville and welling pay a meal tax but if it is mentioned in Elkhorn City they go crazy.  The City should also set a hotel room tax and get ready for develop.  Moore’s Motel already pays this tax to the County.  If we had a Local Tourism Commission it would be paid to EC.

8.      Elkhorn City must build the in river Whitewater Play park that the Heritage Council has started.  This would be a huge draw to downtown and would be key in making sure people do not just drive by on 460.  These parks work.  Everywhere they are built the have a huge economic impact on the local community.

9.      Elkhorn City must continue its Public Art Plan.  Elkhorn City must continue to promote ACT and other individual and public Art initiatives.  The murals and the Blue Line Trail need to be extended.  The riverfront area needs to be keep up as it has been recently.

10.   Elkhorn City must find a way to address most of its public sidewalks.  The old sidewalk to the old school building should be rebuilt.  The highway department took it out after a gravel truck from Elkhorn Stone wrecked and destroyed the guardrail.  There must be a public sidewalk from the new Pike County Housing complex and downtown.

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The Answer to the Great Swimming Pool Debate … election!

The Elkhorn City public swimming pool has been a huge issue the past two years.  It could be argue that the pool was even the deciding issue in the recent mayoral election.

My heart told me to spend whatever was necessary to get the pool back up and running.  I spent my childhood in the E.C. Pool.  I would ride my bicycle form Beaver Creek, two miles away, to go swimming every day in the summer.  My first job was at the E.C. Pool and I worked for there for three summers.  Some of my fondest memories are tied to the Elkhorn City pool.

Until, recently it was almost everyone’s position that the money to repair the pool should be spent.  However, recently, some folks have mentioned that maybe we should not spend $500,000.00 to reopen it.  The reasons not to

Tubing on the Russell Fork in Downtown Elkhorn City, Kentucky

spend the money on the pool are valid.  First, the Breaks Interstate Park has an excellent pool within 7 miles of Elkhorn City.  Second, the pool makes no money whatsoever for the City, it is a loss leader, at best.  Third, Elkhorn City has the cleanest river in Kentuckyrunning through town and kids could always use the old swimming holes like Peto’s hole, Stillworm, Long hole, etc.   Also, the locally supported Russell Fork Whitewater Recreation Plan, could provide for swimming in the river. Forth, the City would need to raise taxes to come up with the money.  Last but certainly not least is the fact the fact that there is no money!  The County does not have the money and the state does not have the money.

The answer to this debate is simple.  Let the people decide. If the residents of Elkhorn City want to spend $500,000.00 on the swimming pool, put it on the ballot.  We should have a bond issue on the next election ballot.  The question should be “Are you in favor of a 10% increase in City property taxes to pay for the rebuilding of the Elkhorn City Public swimming pool?”  Something tells me it would not pass.  What do you think?