Three Rivers: A Kentucky Folk History by Dan Lee (review)

Reviewed by: Three Rivers: A Kentucky Folk History by Dan Lee Gregory K. Culver Three Rivers: A Kentucky Folk History. By Dan Lee. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2023. Pp. viii, 285. Paper, $39.95, ISBN 978-1-4766-9190-9.) Like the land, there is a history in each of our rivers. Whether it is a large body of water measuring hundreds of miles in length, or a narrow creek or stream, the running waters, over time, influence both their regions and the people who live near them. Kentucky historian Dan Lee, who has done extensive research throughout the commonwealth, offers a thoughtful and provocative study, Three Rivers: A Kentucky Folk History, that tells the stories of three historic rivers located in the central part of the state: the Nolin, Rolling Fork, and Rough Rivers. (The author, who lives in Hardin County, Kentucky, has previously offered numerous studies on the Bluegrass State, concentrating on the Civil War years.) Lee's focus on these three river valleys shows that the local populations surrounding these rivers were profoundly influenced by local, state, and national upheavals, which occurred over a period of more than two hundred years: Indian wars, the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the 1937 floods. Above all, the author contends that during these major disasters, local populations were indelibly marked by these crises: settlers killed, houses burned, diseases and epidemics, the deaths of children, and just plain poverty. Along the way, Lee also weaves a number of interesting personal tales of notable figures who walked through these three river valleys: George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, the future king of France Louis Philippe, Charles Lindbergh, and future U.S. presidents James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, [End Page 417] the latter of whom spent his early years near Hodgenville, Kentucky. This interesting work is strongly supported by an extensive collection of state and local historiography and archival sources. These include articles from scholarly journals, state and local newspapers, county histories, and collections of private papers. The commonwealth of Kentucky has numerous bodies of water between its borders. But it is these three historic river valleys located in the central part of the state that give Lee's Three Rivers a permanent place on the shelves of both Kentucky and American historians alike. Gregory K.