lj TOUR I 7 4IS
{ The highway gradually descends to the ridge dividing Martin and
johnson Counties, and to the junction, 21 m., with an improved road.
2 Left on this road 4 m. to the top of SPRING KNOB, on which is a forest frre
observatory.
. PAINTSVILLE, 33.8 m. (620 alt., 2,411·pop.) (see Tour 1), is at
the junction with US 23 (see Tour 1); between Paintsville and a point
. at 35.7 m., State 40 and `US 23 are united.
In the area between Paintsville and Oil Springs mining and petroleum
· production are of importance, though much small fruit is harvested for
shipping to outside markets.
At 36.8 m. is the junction with State 172, improved.
. Right on this road to MUD LICK, 1.9 m., a group of three separate falls be-
; tween towering cliffs; the central falls has a drop of about 25 feet.
State 40 follows the course of PAINT CREEK, named for painted
. trees found by early settlers (see Tour 1); whence it passes through
, Road Fork Creek Valley.
_ At 37.5 m. is the junction with a graded road.
Right on this road to FISHTRAP, 3 m. (camping shelters, 50¢ a week, 10¢ a
I day each person), in a deep gorge. A 4-H clubhouse has been erected here by
SCVCII counties.
OIL SPRINGS, 42.9 m. (892 alt., 150 pop.), named for an oil pool
(L) caused by seepage, is on Mine Fork of Paint Creek, whose name
was suggested by the tales of john Swift and his legendary silver mine
T (see Tour 1).
Near the headwaters of the State Road Fork of Paint Creek, 44.6 m.,
the highway passes through a grove long used as a CAMP MEETING
GRoUNn. Camp meetings are still held in rural Kentucky but their
. character has changed much since 1800, when the first one was held on
t Gasper Creek in Logan County. Until the automobile brought a de-
mand for the improvement of roads, the social life of people in the
. remote coves was very limited; the camp meeting offered the chief op-
portunity for spiritual comfort, excitement, gossip, trading, courting,
Q l and even electioneering. The pioneers, who had shaken off the Estab-
Q lished Church during the Revolution, had not yet found a substitute
L , on the frontier when the first itinerant preachers arrived; self-sufficient
, ` as the people were in forcing livings from the wilderness, they had a
j deep unrest and a feeling of insecurity that made them welcome the
. E revivalists eagerly. The meetings were first held in houses and then,
; 1 when the audiences overflowed, in groves. The men who could best
stir the emotions drew the biggest crowds and the larger the crowd
the more chance there was that hysteria would break out. One neurotic
f   could swing hundreds to a frenzy. The excesses of the camp meetings
' soon reached a stage that caused the more settled members of com-