Our Story

Led by Kayla Bush and Lynn Pruett, Unexpected Stories bridges ancestry, place-based knowledge, and rigorous historical inquiry. Supported by the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange, the project investigates the former Elm Bend settlement through oral histories, archival research, and field exploration. Their work, documented by filmmaker Truman Miller, has already unearthed remnants of homesteads and what appears to be an unrecorded cemetery—sites missing from official county maps and archaeological records. With the help of the Woodford County Historical Society, Deeds, GIS office, Library, Police Department, Friends of the Library, University of Kentucky Archives, Kentucky State University Archives, family and many friends this exploration has touched a plethora of demographics along the way. Without formal recognition, these Black post-Civil War legacies are at risk of vanishing; sustained funding is essential to ensure their investigation, preservation, and rightful place in Kentucky’s history.