Kentucky Minister’s Review of “Surrounding Fort Knox including Southern Indiana”

“Landscapes speak to me!” declares author Ronald R. Van Stockum Jr. And through him, they speak to us, his readers. His knowledge of geography and geology helped him “listen;” after all, topography and soil explain the location of roads, towns, and the production of goods. If you’ve wondered, for instance, what divides the Bluegrass region from the rest of Kentucky and how Louisville and Nashville have long been connected, you will find the answers here in “Surrounding Fort Knox, Including Southern Indiana.” But this book offers much more than these insights. Ideally, you would take a road trip with a companion willing to read aloud from this book. That’s because it is not organized like an encyclopedia but according to the actual experiences of a traveler, a traveler with not only a keen eye but respect and curiosity about the people, their towns and stories, and the food they serve. Van Stockum is also a traveler with the story-telling gifts you want to make the miles seem short. The book is dotted with stories that will make you delay leaving your car until finished not only with the story but with using the internet to find out more, as I did when I learned about “cave millipedes!” Ronald R. “Reggie” Van Stockum Jr.’s 27 pages of references consulted should convince you that here you have an opportunity to enjoy the gleanings of a real student of the region.

– Marian Taylor, Kentucky Presbyterian Minister

Marian Taylor was a Program Officer with the Ford Foundation for five years before becoming Director of the Worldwide Ministries division of the Presbyterian Church in 1997, a position she held for more than nine years. For five years, she served as Executive Director of the Kentucky Council of Churches and for seven years as the Pastor of the South Frankfort Presbyterian Church.