Have you ever wondered exactly what Daniel Boone beheld when he first stood on Pilot Knob and gazed across Cumberland Gap and into Kentucky’s pristine wilderness? How do you suppose the Civil War affected citizens on a daily basis in this "border" state? What’s it like to walk through a coal mine?

At the new $29 million Kentucky History Center in Frankfort you can find the answers to these questions and about that many million others! Open since April 10, this gargantuan state museum is crammed with artifacts from the collection of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) and engulfs a downtown city block, sharing space with a research library and gift shop, and offering the society’s special events, educational and publications programs.

Though design work on the center began in 1990 during Wallace Wilkinson’s administration, it wasn’t until a special legislative session in 1995 that Governor Brereton Jones, with the help of the state’s progressive historian laureate Thomas D. Clark, convinced legislators to approve $17.5 million in construction funds. Excavation had begun when bids came in too high and work halted until late 1996, when the state added $3.3 million and private sources kicked in another $8 million.

The 95-year-old Clark, who’s been affiliated with the Kentucky Historical Society for more than 70 years and now represents the archives on the center’s board, can’t stop singing the center’s praises.

"This is a dream that I can’t believe has come to fruition," he says. "The Kentucky History Center represents the roots of not only the people in this area, but of every man, woman and child in this commonwealth."

Until now, only two to three percent of the KHS’s collection of could be on display at any one time, usually at either the Old State Capitol or the Kentucky Museum of Military History. The rest stayed in storage, many sharing ill-equipped warehouses with rats and bats. The new climate- controlled facility allows the showing of 20 to 30 percent, and those will rotate regularly.

"Now Kentucky has evolved from a poor management situation," Clark continues, "to one that’s top flight in preservation of the state’s past."

Lead architect for the project, Andy Casebier of HMB & Associates in Frankfort, designed the center to look like a collection of buildings of varied architectural styles, instead of one huge structure, so as to better blend with its downtown neighbors.

"With 167,000 square feet of program to consider," said Casebier, "a lot evolved during our 10-year period of work. We were trying to bring historical elements from other places representative of the state into the building, and work them in here in a new way, like the terrazzo floor. The five colors in it are colors from other historic buildings and the brickwork outside comes from an old school torn down for the construction of Capitol Plaza."

A late addition and now a focal point -- as well as the museum’s logo -- is a gorgeous, self- supporting, hand-carved limestone staircase in Commonwealth Hall that was modeled after the Old Capitol stairwell. Its summit affords an eagle’s view of the spacious central atrium and its green inlaid terrazzo stone map of Kentucky, with each county outlined in brass, and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Daniel Boone’s first glimpse into Kentucky, across the splash of vibrant fall foliage in Cumberland Gap, marks the beginning of the center’s permanent exhibit, "A Kentucky Journey," a chronological trip through Kentucky’s economic, cultural and social history. Life-size environments, cutting-edge technology and 14 interactive displays highlight this 20,000-square-foot time-trek.

Beginning with a Native American-built prehistoric hut, visitors survey the state’s evolution, meandering past meticulously-detailed exhibits that include a lifesize flatboat, a reconstructed Owen County log cabin, a Revolutionary War-era Brown Betty Blunderbuss, and a Civil War field hospital with an amputation in progress.

Guests can view an original Worth gown in a Victorian parlor, step into a Depression-era kitchen, and hear Gov. Edward T. "Ned" Breathitt and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak about civil rights in an AME church.

In the middle of all of this is an interactive kiosk with touch screens for accessing the Kentucky Encyclopedia.

The technologies used to breathe life into this Kentucky odyssey are fascinating. As visitors approach certain displays, motion sensors activate animatronic figures, a curious dog cocks his head toward a prehistoric Indian, a kitten plays with yarn under a Victorian chair and a coal miner, his hat light glowing, picks at a mine face.

Look for the clear acrylic domes suspended overhead. Stand under one, and suddenly, you’re on a private tour. Virtual audio imagers allow you to hear about a historical happening as if you were wearing headphones, yet step away from the dome, and the sound drops 80 percent.

At one exhibit visitors can hear the story of Isaac Johnson, a runaway slave whose escape attempt failed, or see a noose called "Judge Lynch" used in hangings.

"Kentucky history is not always pretty," says Kelli Summers Morris, director of public relations for the Kentucky State Historical Society. "What we’ve tried to do is tell the story, to give the facts but not editorialize...what we’re saying is ‘This is what happened. Draw your own conclusions.’"

One of the center’s big draws is the Kentucky Genealogical Research Library, greatly expanded from its former home in the Old State Capitol to 80,000 volumes in its new stacks (which are open to the public), 110 seats in its main reading room, computer terminals with access to a digital catalogue, loads of laptop hookups and five new microfilm readers. Staff members can help folks learn how to check out their family roots, beginning with some 15,000 existing surname files.

Thus far, only the general library has been open. But on June 5, the center will celebrate its first annual Boone Day with a seminar, speaker (this year featuring Kentuckian Bob Edwards of National Public Radio) and chatauqua performance. The special collections, boasting some 100,000 historic photographs and negatives, 20,000 maps and 6,000 oral history tapes among its treasures, will officially make its debut that day as well.

Also opening on Boone Day is a 5,000-square-foot temporary exhibit space, where traditional Kentucky handcrafts will shine in "Warm Memories: Quilts From Kentucky Collections," a display plus live demonstration in which the center’s gorgeous "Celebration Quilt," a log cabin- pattern spread of 120 squares made in each of the state’s counties, will be finish-quilted.

"The Kentucky History Center will be a great attraction because no one can walk through here, Kentuckian or not, and not see something or hear something that touches them or a part of their lives," says Morris.

Just prior to the museum’s official opening, Morris gave her grandparents a sneak preview. Upon seeing an antique broommaking machine, her grandfather said, "Your great grandfather was a broommaker. Did you know that?" Turns out she didn’t.

"I’m the public relations director here," she laughs, "and I’m learning things about my own family I would never have known if this place didn’t exist. It’s a magnificent resource for all of us to know where we come from, and to look to where we’re going."

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.