Watch Your Speed - The Legend of the Real Casey Jones

- by Joe Nolan, Friday, May 30th, 2008

John Luther Jones was born on March 14, 1863. The son of a Kentucky school teacher, Jones eventually moved to Jackson, Tenn., and took work as a railroad engineer on the Illinois Central. Almost exactly 37 years after his inauspicious entry into the world, on a foggy night in Yazoo County, Miss., Jones would be born again, as a hero who became a legend.

Jones was born in southeast Missouri, although the exact place of birth is unknown. What is known, is that Jones and his family moved South to Kentucky when he was 13 years old. In no time, Jones grew into a strapping young man, standing nearly 6 feet 5 inches tall on the streets of his new small town, the place that was to give him his nickname: Cayce, KY.

By the time Jones was 15, he had his first job as a telegrapher for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, located near Cayce, in Columbus, KY. With Casey’s natural size and strength, opportunities for advancement in the often brutal world of railroad labor came quickly and easily. By 1884, Casey moved to Jackson, Tenn., where he worked as a flagman for the M&O.

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Photo Essay: South Main

- by Martin Jones, Thursday, May 15th, 2008

These pictures were taken walking around the South Main district on a Saturday afternoon. We attempted to capture the beauty that can be found in the old and abandoned buildings in the area - the textures, the light and the character. We found that on foot, things we normally wouldn’t notice captured our interest, from the colors in an old parking garage to an old rusty window. While the South Main district has come a long way in filling up many of these abaonded spaces with great shops and galleries, there are still the old and decaying relics in the mix.

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