One key to a city on the rise: “A lot of really good people doing really good things.”
What makes Prestonsburg shine?
Ask Mayor Les Stapleton to share the story of Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and you’ll get a short version and a long version.
Short version: “We were definitely a coal economy. We’re not now.”
Long version: a three-hour narrated driving tour that includes the renowned Mountain Arts Center…hiking, biking and equine trails…a Civil War battlefield…Jenny Wiley State Park and Amphitheater…an under-construction rails-to-trails path running from downtown to David, former model coal camp fallen on hard times…a professionally designed golf course and trails built on a reclaimed mountaintop removal mining site…a downtown filling with restaurants and small shops…a city park complete with indoor skating rink, pool, playground and a 1.25-million-Christmas-light display that draws 40,000 cars seasonally…a state-of-the-art Science Center housing a 40-foot domed planetarium…
It was clear from the beginning that Prestonsburg’s story is book-length, and worth knowing.
It was a good move to house the Pres- tonsburg Tourism Office in the Mountain Arts Center (MAC). Home to Billy Jean Osborne’s Kentucky Opry, the MAC is longstanding proof of Prestonsburg’s music roots. Over the past 23 years, the 1,044-seat auditorium has welcomed performers like Loretta Lynn, Billy Ray Cyrus, Patty Loveless, Ricky Skaggs and Chris Stapleton to its stage. With a sophisticated commercial recording studio and busy music lesson rooms, the MAC deepens traditional mountain music roots and looks forward to new generations of musicians on the largest stage east of the Mississippi.
But it’s not only music that MAC celebrates. The vast lobby has an art gallery, a coal mining museum with rotating exhibits and the Ranier Racing Museum (where NASCAR fans can visit the famous Gray Ghost, record-breaking winner of the 1980 Daytona 500 with Buddy Baker at the wheel).
But is an impressive arts center enough to bring new life to a post-coal economy?
Executive Director of Marketing Samantha West comes from a family of coal miners. ‘If someone had told me 10 years ago that I could come home and make a living, I’d have said, ‘Whaaaaat?’
“When you strip away coal, you’re left with what you have. For us, it’s our mountains and rivers, our history and entertainment,” West says. “It’s a process of re-imagining what can be. How can we take empty spaces downtown and make them new? We work to re-imagine that an empty alleyway can be a place for murals…that our old hardware store could be a black-box theatre.”
West isn’t the only young person who champions a different way of thinking about Appalachian small towns. Artist and yoga teacher Jenna McGuire teaches art in low-income housing, and works with preschoolers on self-regulation through yoga and breath work. “They’re taking these tools with them into the public schools. We’re working to develop right-brain thinking for success.”
McGuire is part of a group of Prestonsburg women who meet to plan a way forward for their hometown. “We think about our roots, our culture—who we are—and how we can use our strengths going forward. We have always been makers and creators in these mountains. Farmers, quilt makers, food makers, soap makers.”
She points out that most of the new businesses in downtown Prestonsburg have been opened by creators.
“The Mountain Muse is run by an artist—she sells vintage attire and homemade fudge. At Sew In Love, people can come and learn how to make quilts and aprons…there’s a quilting group that meets every morning. Recently, we’ve had a pottery shop and custom jewelry shop open.”
Creative re-imaging figured large in the creation of 1200-acre StoneCrest, a recreation and residential area rising 800 feet above Prestonsburg created on a former moutaintop removal coal operation. In addition to an 18-hole golf course and upscale housing, there’s an equine center, ballfields and a growing network of hiking, biking and horse trails. StoneCrest—like Jenny Wiley State Park—lies within the Prestonsburg limits, and therefore contribute significantly to the city tax base.
A story about Prestonsburg wouldn’t be complete without a bit about John Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor who came to town in 1970 as a lawyer with the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (AppalReD). In addition to providing legal aid services to the poor, Rosenburg’s work was central to the creation of a constitutional amendment outlawing broad form deeds, which allowed coal companies to destroy property with immunity. His wife, Jean, was the first prepared childbirth instructor in Kentucky and ran programs for single parents and homemakers, enabling them to return to school.
In addition, the Rosenbergs worked to improve science and math education (think STEM) and were instrumental in the creation of the East Kentucky Science Center and Varia Planetarium. Center Director Steve Russo, a New York transplant and confirmed Prestonsburg fan, was amazed to find a sophisticated planetarium in a Kentucky town of 4,000.
“I take a lot of pride in being a Kentuckian. I see the good that’s here. It’s the coolest place I’ve ever lived.”
Which takes us back to where we began. How do you tell the long and short of a small mountain town on the comeback? Samantha West does a pretty good job with this: “We’ve done a lot of brainstorming…and now we’re putting ideas into action. We have a lot of really good people doing really good things.”
The story above appears in our January/February 2020 issue. For more subscribe today or log in to the digital edition with your active digital subscription. Thank you for your support!
