America’s history is locked by the hands of those who own it. In Harrison County, Kentucky, the stories, much like most of the land, are stored away — only found in private. But unlike the past that you read in books, here the past shows itself through rock walls built by enslaved people and indentured Irish immigrants, in the shared family names and in the stories of those who have stayed for generations. History here is a collective engagement, not held by institutions or great volumes of books, but told and shared through the voices of its 18,000 residents. For those living, they look to the 200 some family cemeteries scattered throughout the county to start the conversation about history. In the words of American poet Ron Rash: “Time don’t pass. It’s just layers. It’s all still happening,”
