mmm AL, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1980 Man recalls role in reporting Sand Cave saga of Floyd Collins derm Rutherford's column appears regularly in the Indiana edition of The Courier-Journal. JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. On Jan. 30, 1925, Floyd Collins ventured into Sand' Cave about eight miles from Cave- City, and proceeded to get himself trapped. Collins couldn't get out, and once the word spread from Kentucky to other parts of the nation, hordes of reporters descended on Sand Cave.
Eventually, thousands of tourists did, too. The scene became a carnival, and all the while Collins was dying, newspapers throughout the nation were carrying daily stories on their front pages. It took 17 days for rescuers to reach his body, not because he was so deep in the cave he was only 60 feet below the surface but because the ville. Tents were erected, souvenirs were sold and so on. Amid all the hoopla, Collins died.
There had been several attempts to reach him, and in fact two of his brothers and a friend did manage to get to his underground prison on a couple of occasions. It was during one of those attempts that part of the passageway collapsed even further; that happened about 11 days after Collins entered the cave. And that's when most researchers believe Collins actually died. They didn't reach his body, however, until Feb. 16; it was then that the world learned of Collins' death.
So why bring all this to your attention now? Because there aren't too many people alive who were there at the carnival. And one of them lives in Jefferson-ville. H. E. Ogden, 80, operated a battery-powered radio station at the Sand Cave site.
He worked for a Louisvlle sporting goods company, but The Courier-Journal needed a way to get information from the cave to the city desk. Apparently, Ogden's boss was a friend of someone at the newspaper, one thing led to another and before you could say "throw me a rope" a deal was struck. The radio station, which went by the call letters 9-BRK, was manned by Ogden at the site. He worked inside a tent and sent the weak radio signal eight miles to a telegraph office in Cave City. There, Basil Rauth, who was working with Ogden, relayed the messages by telegraph to Louisville.
words they were sending were those of William "Skeets" Miller, a young reporter who eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for his work at Sand Cave. Though Miller won the prize, the fact is that nearly every bit of his information was rewritten by another reporter in The Courier-Journal's Louisville office. No one remembers that reporter's name. So it goes. Anyway, it's Basil Rauth's brother who brought all this to my attention.
Walter Rauth, 80, called to remember his brother, who died Sept 15 in Arkansas. And it was Walter Rauth who said I should call Ogden. "I don't remember everything about it" Ogden said yesterday, "but I do recall that it wasn't very comfortable. "It was the middle of winter, and I guess I stayed there about a week. The only way out was on muleback, and you just had a tent you know, no conveniences." Eventually, the National Guard took over the rescue efforts and the radio station.
And since Ogden was one of the men at the cave site, more than a few of the multitude of reporters gathered there decided to talk to him. "Oh, I was interviewed one right after the other," he said. "I guess I've been interviewed by reporters from New York to Los Angeles. And I suppose I may be one of the last survivors of those who were there." That's probably true. And thanks to Walter Rauth for letting us know about it.
1980, Tha Courtar-Journal Glenn Rutherford columnist walls in the narrow passageway kept collapsing. And because some of the rescuers spent more time drinking and arguing than they did rescuing. While they were passing the bottle and bickering, newspapers published road maps to Cave City. The Louisville Nashville Railroad even scheduled special trains to the site from Louis- Owners block entrances to protect Knobs forest Dead miner's father Republicans says mine is still going are excluded Big project in Paducah is picketed Continued from Page 1 before daylight yesterday at all entrances to the project site. W.
B. Sanders, president of the West Kentucky Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, said the la from meeting By SY RAMSEY Auociatad Prau FRANKFORT, Ky. Gov. John Y. Brown Jr.
met with about 60 Democratic legislators this week but did not invite any Republicans because he said the GOP leadership had "abused our relationship." The governor said in an interview yesterday that the Republicans were excluded because of their demands this summer for equal time on the Kentucky Educational Television network to respond to Brown's announcement of $114 million in budget reductions. "If they want to play politics, they are not going to be effectively working with this administration," Brown said. He said he would like to have more sessions such as the all-day affair Monday at the Frankfort Country Auociatad Pras CORBIN, Ky. A Whitley County mine ordered closed after a miner's death is still operating, the victim's father said yesterday. And a reporter who went to the mine to check said an anonymous telephone caller told him later, "This is your first warning.
The next time you come up here you'll be shot." The mine, four openings in a wooded hillside in the Meadow Creek area, was ordered closed by the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration after the death of John Thomas Adkins, 19, of Woodbine. Whitley County Coroner Carl Paul said Adkins died Oct 1 of suffocation in a mining accident Thomas Mark, the administration's subdistrict supervisor, said an inspection after Adkins' death was hindered by "the difficulty of getting into the mine because of its unsafe condition." Mark said the mine constituted an "imminent danger" because of poor roof support and was operating without a permit. He ordered it closed. Records on file at the administration's office in Barbourville indicate that the mine was being operated by Zonda Lee Coal Co. of Woodbine, owned by Kenneth Crawford and operated by his son, Jeff Crawford.
Also, because of failure to reclaim surface disturbances at the site, the federal Office of Surface Mining has twice ordered the mine closed, said Bill Bradford, OSM public-affairs officer at Knoxville, Tenn. Bradford said that when the mine was still operating after the second instance, on Sept 11, OSM turned the case over to the U.S. attorney's office in Lexington, which was seeking a restraining order to halt operations. But he said that would take several weeks. Yesterday Adkins' father called The Corbin Times-Tribune to say that coal was still being brought out of the mine.
A reporter, Willie Sawyers, said he went to the mine and found a ventilation fan running near one of the openings. He said a dump truck approached and a man in the truck, who wouldn't identify himself, said, "We're just loading the coal that was mined before." Sawyers said the man told him papers had been filed in Frankfort and the operators were in the process of getting permits. But Mark said that under his closure order, men can enter the mine only to correct the unsafe conditions. "They are not allowed to take any coal from the site, even if it was mined before it was closed," he said. Sawyers said that after he returned to his office a man who wouldn't identify himself telephoned and asked why he had been at the mine.
He said the man delivered the threat about coming to the mine again and added, "We have a night watchman now, and from now on we'll have a day watchman too." the state, Bernheim asked the state Fish and Wildlife Commission to make the roads passable and install a gate at the main entrance to the area, off U.S. 62 six miles west of Bardstown. But the commission took no action on the request, apparently because the heavy damage had discouraged hunters from using the area, McClure said. He said the wildlife commission was considered to be the major user of Knobs forest because the major legal activity there has been deer hunting. The agency has sold many hunting licenses in Jefferson County, McClure said, because the forest is one of the prime deer-hunting areas close to Louisville.
The state leased the Knobs forest in 1959 with hopes of doing experimental forestry work, but the General Assembly never appropriated money for it In July the foundation charged that the state had failed to comply with terms of the lease requiring protection and improvement of the area. Kentucky has state forests in other areas but owns all of them outright. McClure said state officials were skeptical of making special rules to protect only one forest, even though it was the only one close to a major population center. Because of its proximity to Louisville, Knobs was the most heavily visited state forest, with about 25,000 visits a year in the early 1970s. But that figure declined steadily as the rutted roads kept more people out of the area.
Last year's visitation was estimated at 5,000, most of them four-wheel-drive users. McClure said Berhneim is considering several uses for the Knobs forest, including leasing the area to private groups for hunting or camping. He said there is some sentiment for making the area a state wildlife refuge, a status Bernheim Forest has had since 1951, and letting it revert to true wilderness. By AL CROSS Courlar-Journal staff Wrltar CLERMONT, Ky. Knobs State Forest is closed, but its owners believe they will have a hard time keeping people out of it.
The hilly wilderness in northwestern Nelson County ceased to be a state forest Oct. 6, when the Isaac W. Bernheim Foundation ended the state's lease on the area and closed it to the public. Bernheim officials hope to protect the Knobs forest by blocking entrances and patrolling the area two things the state couldn't or wouldn't do. The foundation canceled the lease because the state wasn't able to protect the area from devastation by four-wheel-drive vehicles.
The foundation's board of directors is expected to decide the immediate future of the forest at a meeting Nov. 21 and 22. The foundation operates the adjoining Bernheim Forest, a nature preserve and wildlife refuge that lies mostly in Bullitt County, south of the village of Clermont. The Bernheim officials think some four-wheel fanatics will be so determined to return to the Knobs forest area that they'll break down fences to get in. "It's an endless game with some people," Bernheim Forest Manager Charles McClure said at a news conference yesterday.
"Many of them will come anyway. It becomes a challenge." Four-wheel-drive vehicles have torn 4-foot-deep ruts in the forest's roads, McClure said. The ruts make firefighting difficult if not impossible in some places. Bernheim officials hope to make the roads passable with some light grading work before the forest-fire season starts in a few days. State estimates for fixing the seven miles of road ranged as high as $750,000, but McClure said that figure was "not really reasonable." He said $100,000 worth of road work would make the area suitable for continued public use.
McClure said Bernheim, which is supported by private donations, will need extra money to do the road work and may ask the state for financial aid. "We don't think it's quite fair" for the state to abandon the forest when it should bear part of the responsibility for the damage, McClure said. If Bernheim gets money from the state, it probably won't come from the Division of Forestry, which supervised the forest Kenneth Imes, commissioner of the state Bureau of Natural Resources, told reporters yesterday, "The Division of Forestry simply doesn't have the funds or equipment to do anything with it" In hopes of salvaging its lease with bor unions may also boycott downtown businesses and banks. He said the boycott would protest a lack of support for labor in its effort to work out problems with Green. Sanders said that Green's terms are unacceptable, but that he hopes the problems can be worked out But Green, builder and owner of the Executive Inn Rivermont convention motel at Owensboro, said in a prepared statement that he would build the complex with an "open shop." Under an open shop he would be able to hire non-union workers.
"I have finally come to the conclusion a successful, competitive hotel-motel-convention center cannot be built under the organized building trades." The statement was read by telephone from Evansville by Larry Downs, one of Green's attorneys. Green said in the statement that he still plans to build the hotel-motel buildings, which will have more than 500 rooms. "I have given my word to the people of Paducah, and I will try to keep it," he said in the statement. Early this month Green met with Paducah labor-union representatives and presented a project agreement, which the unions refused to sign. The proposal called for a single contract covering all crafts employed on the project.
A day or two later Green made what he called a final offer, and most of the unions refused to sign it. Last Wednesday the unions submitted a proposal to Green. It was rejected almost immediately. In the prepared statement Green said the unions' proposal included what he called restrictions on management rights, a provision to hire only current union members, an increase in overtime pay, a weak no-strike clause, the possibility of jurisdictional disputes and work-assignment rights. Sanders said, however, that labor laws will not allow unions to take over management of the project and that no jurisdictional strikes have occurred in the Paducah area in at least five years.
Gary Seay, business agent of the electricians union, said that the unions are willing to accept binding arbitration of any disagreement. And, in a prepared statement yesterday, Ernest Franke, executive director of the West Kentucky Area Labor-Management Committee, asked Green to meet with labor representatives. Some troopers may testify Club. Asked if Republicans might be invited next time, Brown said, "It's according to how I feel." Also not invited or notified of the meeting were reporters. "This was really a working session and it would have served no useful purpose to have the media there," Brown said.
He said the discussion ranged from the need for better communication between his administration and the General Assembly between sessions to his philosophy about needed legislation in the next session. As a result of the meeting, Brown said, he may assign a person in each of the major Cabinet areas to communicate with legislators on matters affecting their constituents. Brown said some lawmakers told him they were occasionally unable to get information from various departments. The governor focused his comments about the GOP on the minority leaders in each house: Sen. Eugene Stuart of Prospect and Rep.
Art Schmidt of Cold Spring. The matter dates to Brown's August appearance on KET to explain the budget cuts, caused by a sharp drop in expected state revenue. He said Republican leaders had been briefed and expressed no objections, but then demanded equal time on KET and lashed out at the reductions. The Republicans contended that the governor, in his KET speech and news conference afterward, spent more time indulging in politics than in outlining the fiscal situation. This, they said, was the reason for their equal-time request.
Brown said yesterday that there is no need for "an adversary position in the legislative process." Owner of packing plant cleared in cruelty case Continued from Page 1 land apparently helped VonBergen. Ragland was the only witness given "expert" status by the court Ragland, a licensed veterinarian and full-time inspector at the plant, testified that photos taken on Aug. 10 did not necessarily show unusual conditions for a slaughterhouse. He said ponies are treated humanely at the plant Ragland said USDA regulations govern the treatment of livestock at slaughterhouses. He said that if a plant violates the regulations, all or part of it can be shut down.
would have longer statutes of limitations or none at all. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that several officers said Joseph Griffin, special agent in charge of the FBI in Kentucky, was in the area the night police raided the Graham house. Jack Lowery, one of two Louisville attorneys representing the Graham family, told the AP that some witnesses said the FBI official was in the area while the raid was planned. Others, he told the AP, said Griffin was at the Graham house. But whether Griffin took part in the raid was not determined, Lowery added.
Griffin was out of town yesterday and could not be reached for comment. And FBI spokesman Phil Doty said there probably will not be any comment because the case is involved in litigation. Lowery also told the AP that a representative of the attorney general's office was present earlier this month when former state police Commissioner Kenneth Brandenburgh gave a deposition in the case. In that deposition, given before Brandenburgh's resignation, it was revealed for the first time that the commissioner was in the area the night Harris was killed. Continued from Page 1 against 21 policemen involved in the raid.
The troopers are giving sworn statements this week to attorneys for the Grahams in the civil damage suit. "We have been told by one attorney representing the policemen that they will come and talk with us after the depositions," Beshear said. The attorney, Larry Raikes of Hod-genville, said that attorneys representing some other troopers have also agreed to allow their clients to testify, Beshear said. But he said attorneys for other officers may not have been reached yet, and still other troopers don't have attorneys. "We are in the process of communicating with all the other individual officers not represented by attorneys to find out their positions," Beshear said.
"We're hopeful that after we talk with the others, they will come in." Beshear said investigators from his office are sitting in on the depositions. He said he wants to complete all the interviews before the one-year statute of limitations for misdemeanors ends Nov. 7. However, Beshear said, it is possible that some felonies may have been committed during the raid, and they Sanders said Franke's committee, a citizens' group, has dealt with industrial labor problems, but has never taken a hand in a construction-trades case. Most of the pickets yesterday were from the carpenters and cement-finishers unions.
But Sanders said members of four other crafts, which he did not name, and some non-union workers refused to cross the picket line. James Doom, business agent of the cement finishers, said he thought two-thirds of the workers on the job honored the line. Richard Bogle, project manager, would not discuss the picketing's impact on the project. But he said work is Kentucky, Ohio Man arrested in Detroit bombing to build bridge at Ashland Auociatad Prau ASHLAND, Ky. Kentucky and Ohio will build a $17.5 million bridge across the Ohio River between 13th Street in Ashland and U.S.
52 near Ironton, Ohio, Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. announced yesterday. meditated murder under Michigan law.
The bombing occurred Oct 4. Matthew Jenkins, 41, a truck driver for Convoy Inc. of Highland Park was killed when his car exploded as he was driving it from the company parking lot Jenkins was a member of Teamsters Local 299, the same one as James R. Hoffa, the former union boss who is missing and presumed dead. The federal complaint alleged that Grasfeder bought a dynamite-like explosive in Tennessee or Kentucky and transported it to Highland Park, where he planted it in Jenkins' car.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Grasfeder's age and address were not given, and Robinson did not say what led to his arrest Auociatad Prau PADUCAH, Ky. A man arrested in Paducah in connection with the bombing death of a Detroit Teamsters union member will be returned to Detroit for a preliminary hearing, officials said yesterday. Fred Grasfeder waived his right to a removal hearing during an appearance before U.S. Magistrate David King.
He was ordered held in lieu of $215,000 bond. The Detroit hearing is tentatively set for Oct. 31. Grasfeder was arrested Monday by Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents. He was charged with transporting an explosive across state lines with intent to kill, said James K.
Robinson, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Wayne County Prosecutor William Cahalan said a warrant would also be issued charging Grasfeder with pre AROUND Cidi KENTUCKY fJ0 Hearing set on tannery's waste FRANKFORT A hearing will be Nov. 5-6 to determine whether Middlesboro Tanning Co. has violated state hazardous-material and solid-waste laws.
In a complaint filed in September, the state Department for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection contended that the tannery's wastes qualify under state law as hazardous and have been discarded without permits. The department is seeking fines of $25,000 a day from the Bell County firm for alleged violations of hazardous-waste regulations and $1,000 a day for alleged solid-waste violations. The state charges that the company has been disposing of hazardous wastes in trenches on its property since late 1977. Brown creates tourism council GILBERTSVILLE Gov. John Y.
Brown Jr. has signed an executive order creating the Governor's Advisory Council on Tourism-Development Secretary Larry Townsend announced the formation of the council yesterday during a fall tourism conference at Kentucky Dam Village State Park. He said the council will advise the governor, the development secretary and the tourism commissioner on the effectiveness of the state's promotional efforts. Appointed to the council were state Rep. Dolly Mcnu*tt D-Paducah; Ashland Oil Vice President Frank P.
Justice of Ashland; T. Samuels Jr. of Louisville, president of Maker's Mark; Benjamin L. Bernstein of Cincinnati, president and board chairman of International Food Service Coach House Restaurant owner Stanley Demos of Lexington; Thomas E. Green of Owensboro, general manager of Green Coal and Paul Luersen of Louisville, general manager of the Gait House, Executive Inn and Executive West From Associated Press Dispatches progressing.
The labor dispute is the second connected with the project In late summer Green objected to the $2.2 million the Convention Center Board had offered to pay Federal Materials Co. for its property. That property was to be a part of the project site, just inside the floodwall near the city's riverfront. Government money was to be used for the purchase, but Green objected anyway. He said the price was unreasonable, and he did not want to be a party to it.
Later, after more than a block of business buildings, including some of Paducah's oldest, had been razed, the site was changed so that the Federal Materials property would not have to be acquired. Green was permitted to shift the site to 10-acre Barkley Park, just north of the first site. Then the Convention Center Board announced that it had bought the Federal Materials property at a lower price, and that it would connect the park area and the block that had been cleared. A shopping center was proposed for that area. A question has been raised about the status of a $4 million grant by the state for the convention center and $2.9 million in federal funds for the site that was cleared if the hotel-motel complex is not built A member of the convention board, who asked not to be named because he said the matter had not been publicly discussed by the group, was pessimistic.
He said the city "could be sued for the money, and we would be left in a terrible situation." Special jury hears 5 witnesses again Brown, his wife, Phyllis, and Transportation Secretary Frank Metts attended a news conference at a car lot overlooking the current 12th Street Bridge. Brown told about 50 local Democrats and civic leaders who attended that be got "a lot of heat" in the area during his campaign for governor because he would not make a commitment to build the bridge. But he said, "We have never questioned the need for the bridge, nor have we failed to hear the demand." He said Kentucky will pay 80 percent of the $17.5 million cost of the bridge and Ohio will pay 20 percent Metts said the first construction contracts should be let by October 1981 and the bridge should be completed by 1985. The plan is for the new three-lane bridge to carry northbound traffic to Ohio, while the current two-lane bridge carries southbound traffic. Brown said payroll cuts and other savings initiated by Metts in the Transportation Department had helped make money available for the bridge.
Tha Courtor-Journal Burau LEXINGTON, Ky. Five witnesses made return appearances yesterday before the special federal grand jury that is investigating alleged corruption related to state government. Four were certified public accountants from Frankfort Harold R. Butler, Don Giles, George H. Helton and Charles T.
Mitchell. None would discuss his appearance. Also appearing was Donnie Mun-ford of Campbellsville, an insurance agent His attorney said there would be no comment but Munford often has a quip for reporters and yesterday was no exception. "I was helping them arrange the Christmas party," Munford said, an apparent reference to the expiration of the jury's term in December. All of the witnesses have appeared at least once before during the jury's 16-month investigation.
Helton has appeared five times since late 1979. Witnesses called by a grand jury aren't necessarily targets of an investigation. Two Internal Revenue Service agents also made brief appearances before the jury yesterday morning..
