The Kentucky Room on the third floor of Lexington's Central Library houses a collection of resources documenting the history of Kentucky and Kentuckians. For 75 years, its rare books, photographs, and maps have drawn genealogists, true crime researchers, and curious scholars from across the state and around the country.
Librarian Wayne Johnson says his favorite mystery the Kentucky Room helped solve involved a veteran from Oregon.
"There was an agency out there, a veterans agency, that was trying to help him apply for benefits," said Johnson. "He needed some information about a particular incident that happened at Fort Knox - an accident that happened on the base or near the base and it was kind of classified, top secret."
Johnson said the resources in Oregon weren't turning anything up, so the agency went to Kentucky's state library in Frankfort, which then directed them to the Lexington Public Library. Using the resources in the Kentucky Room, they were able to find proof of the accident.
"We've had plenty of questions over the years, but that's one that really sticks out," said Johnson. "It was a nationwide search for this gentleman to find out about this accident and it was a classified type of accident. There wasn't any media coverage, and we were able to put some pieces together in the puzzle and find out what happened."
To celebrate the 75th Anniversay of the Kentucky Room, the Library is hosting a special event on Sunday, July 21 from 2 to 3:30. Attendees will be able to win a limited-run Cricket Press poster of the room by completing a bingo-card-scavenger-hunt – where they, too, might discover something new.