‘Secret’ Kentucky Island Emerges Every Year to Reveal Its Mysteries

I never know what rabbit hole has my name on it when I'm streaming YouTube. One day, it's a detailer expertly transforming the nastiest vehicles you've ever seen; the next, it's a mongoose fighting a cobra.

I also recently found a series of videos about discoveries--some rather grim ones--made as drought conditions have severely affected the water levels in Nevada's Lake Mead.

When I was a child, my dad filmed Owensboro authorities removing an old Cadillac from the Ohio River. I was mesmerized. This sort of thing seems to be right up my alley.

That's why I'm fascinated every year when the Tennessee Valley Authority lowers Kentucky Lake's water level from July through the end of November. When that happens, a whole raft of secrets is revealed...secrets that begin with a town that no longer exists.

Birmingham KY -- Gone With the Dam

A town whose roots can be traced back to 1853, Birmingham KY became a thriving business community after the Civil War. At one point, its population was greater than Benton, Marshall County's seat. Its stave mill and timber company employed more than 200 people during post-war Reconstruction. And in 1903, the Bank of Birmingham was created. It was a hoppin', happenin' little town save for a horrific incident in 1908 when the infamous "night riders" raided the tiny town and brutally assaulted several members of the town's Black community, some of whom were forced to leave for their own safety.

Then the Kentucky Dam arrived. Construction lasted from 1938 to 1944, and in 1945, President Harry Truman was on hand for the "ribbon cutting." Sadly, the dam marked the literal END of Birmingham KY. Every year, however, part of it--Cemetery Island--reemerges every year when the TVA lowers the water level.

Just one headstone remains from Newburg Cemetery, but if it does nothing else, it will perhaps send YOU down a fascinating rabbit hole of information about a big Kentucky "secret" that's revealed every single year.