Megan Elizabeth Hartfield of Greensburg was LWC's representative
May 24-27 at the 82-year-old festival. Hartfield, who is an honors
biology junior at the liberal arts college, was one of 23 students
from Kentucky colleges and universities who were members of the
Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival queen's court. Jamie Elizabeth
Horne of Georgetown College was crowned Saturday 2012 Kentucky
Mountain Laurel Festival queen.
The Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival is one of Kentucky's oldest
festivals, second to the Kentucky Derby. Founded in 1931, the
festival has been held every year in Pineville -- except during the
war years of 1942-47 -- a city of 2,000 nestled in the Appalachian
foothills in Bell County.
The festival was started to honor 18th-century pioneer explorer Dr.
Thomas Walker, an Englishman who led one of the first European
expeditions through the Cumberland Gap.
The festival's culmination is the queen's coronation, held Saturday
afternoon at Laurel Cove Amphitheater in Pine Mountain State Resort
Park, the commonwealth's oldest state park. Traditionally,
Kentucky's governor crowns the queen with a garland made from the
region's native mountain laurel.
More ... Click here to see more pictures from the
Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival.
print
e-mail
Feedback and Comments
2008 Lindsey Wilson College