Pushing Edmonson County to the Fore Front in Washington DC

 

 

Staff Report

 

Most residents of Edmonson County know Mr. Woodcock and his family. When an issue such as the ferries in Mammoth Cave National Park are brought to the attention of citizens it should and does make residents think, “Have we been treated unfairly by Mammoth Cave National Park and more importantly the politicians voted in to protect the interest of our community?”

The answer does tend to lean to the yes, we have been taken advantage of and forgotten about by those we trusted and helped place into office. Today the National Park and residents of Edmonson County have a good working relationship due to work on the local level, but the powers that be in Washington DC, whom are in charge, tend to not care what affects Edmonson County residents and have proven that time and time again.

The following is a letter that Mr. Scottie Woodcock sent and has been circulating in the county. Perhaps if more citizens would also express their frustration on the points discussed someone would listen and take notice.

 

Scottie Woodcock

p.o. Box 310
Brownsville, KY 42210
August 9, 2025

To President Donald Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Rand Paul, Representative Brett
Guthrie

My name is Scottie Woodcock, and I was born in the city of Brownsville in Edmonson County Kentucky. I
have had a normal life, I played basketball, baseball, and graduated in 1951. After that I got a
job from Mammoth Cave Concessions and they sent me to work as a dishwasher at the Blue
Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. There I saw a beautiful waitress named Ethel Davis and dated
her; we fell in love and married when we were 18 years old. We stayed in North Carolina for a

; short time and then returned to Brownsville, God blessed us with three daughters and a son. In
1957 we started a business called the Western Auto and worked with the Bank of Edmonson ~ County.

At this time in my life the question came to me … what is my purpose of being here? It came to
me that my purpose is to make Brownsville and Edmonson County a better place when I leave
this life than what I found it to be. With that in mind, my wife and I joined every organization in
the county. I served on the town board several times, helped bring an industrial foundation to
Brownsville, and was a charter member of the Lions Club.

In 2 months, I will be 93, this past week I have driven to Cincinnati, played golf two or three
times, and bush hogged my farm regularly. My mind is good on what I am going to write you
about, just don’t ask me what I had for dinner yesterday!

This last week I drove to the part of Edmonson County called “the Forks of the River” which is
located between the Green River, Nolin River, and Mammoth Cave National Park. I drove up
there to see if the Green River Ferry inside the park was open, it was not. Of Mammoth Cave’s
50,000 acres, 40,000 of them are in Edmonson County, including most of the park buildings and
the caves that makes Mammoth Cave a world heritage site. But despite this, the people of
Edmonson County have not reaped the reward of having this beautiful park in our backyards,
and if anything, it has made life in our quaint county more difficult. Interstate 65 completely
bypasses Edmonson County, due to the park. It takes someone nearly an hour to drive from one
end of our county to the other because of the Park. The only bridge across the Green River is
outside the park, there were/are two ferries over the river in the park but over the past several
years the Park Service has been seeking excuses to close them due to either high water or low
water. And recently they have announced intentions to completely close the ferries.

Recently, the Army Corps of Engineers removed the dams and locks from the Green River and
has lowered the water level dramatically. Now the stretch of the Green River inside Mammoth
Cave resembles a creek or a branch rather than the river it once was. This brings me to my

Main request for you, to build bridges over these parts of the river where the ferries once

operated.

This is not the first time I have taken action concerning the roads around the National Park.
Years ago, R.A. Demumbrum, Col. R.E. Donahue, Maurice Parsley, and I met with Governor
Happy Chandler to pave the road to the Park in Edmonson County. I also was a close
acquaintance with Representative Bill Natcher.

Mammoth Cave has walking, biking, and horse riding trails, but there is nothing for other folks to
drive all around the park, as the roads are now a dead end at the ferry. The closure of these
ferries has hindered visitation to the park and has literally divided our county. Barren County and
Hart County have enjoyed both the benefits of the park and the interstate, and Edmonson
County has been ignored and left feeling like a “BASTARD AT A FAMILY HOMECOMING!”

In closing I will paraphrase President Reagan’s call for Mr. Khrushchev to “Tear down this wall!”
So, Donald, Mitch, Rand, Brett … BUILD THOSE BRIDGES FOR EDMONSON COUNTY!

 

 

Here is how you can contact Senators or Congressmen or even President Trump. It may sound silly but if they were flooded with thousands of letters all talking about the same issue it might catch their attention.

 

Senator Mitch McConnell

(202) 224-2541

317 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington DC 20510

 

Senator Rand Paul

Local Office

(270) 782-8303

563 Hub Boulevard

Suite 201

Bowling Green, KY 42103

Washington DC Office

167 Russell Senate Office Building

Washington, DC 20510

(202) 224-4343

 

Congressman Brett Guthrie

Bowling Green
District Office

996 Wilkinson Trace, Suite B2
Bowling Green, KY 42103
Phone: (270) 842-9896
Fax: (270) 842-9081

Washington DC Office

2161 Rayburn H.O.B. Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3501
Fax: (202) 226-2019

 

President Donald J Trump

THE WHITE HOUSE

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Phone number- (202) 456-1111