For example, the first letterbox we searched for featured Captain Underpants, a character from a children's book series.  Where else would he be but near the world headquarters of Fruit of the Loom.  The Fruit of the Loom brand dates back to 1851 in Rhode Island when Robert Knight, a textile mill owner, visited  his friend, Rufus Skeel, a Rhode Island shopkeeper who sold Knight's fabrics.  As a marketing tool, Mr. Skeel's daughter painted images of apples and applied them to the bolts of cloth. When Knight learned that the ones with the apple emblems were the store's best sellers, the labels inspired Mr. Knight's trade name, Fruit of the Loom.

  
In addition to its claim to underwear fame, Bowling Green is also a mecca for Corvette owners.  Today, that uniquely American sports car is manufactured only in Bowling Green, which also happens to be the home of the National Corvette Museum.  (We liked the museum so much we devoted a separate blog post to it.) In the tradition of the popular public art "parades" (which began with Chicago's parade of cows in 1999), the Bowling Green area hosted a 'Vettetastic Parade several years ago.  Five of the scale model 1957 Corvettes are still on display around town.

  

Mammoth Cave

With Mammoth Cave National Park 30 miles to the north, it's not surprising that Bowling Green has its own natural wonder.  Lost River Cave and Valley boasts Kentucky's only underground boat tour on an underground river which is claimed to be the world's shortest and deepest.  Local legend tells that back in the 19th century, the infamous Jesse James hid out in Lost River Cave after robbing a bank in nearby Russellville.  We have it on good information that the boat tours were not running during that period.

Duncan Hines cake

  
Though not robbing banks, Bowling Green's native son Duncan Hines also traveled around quite a bit.  As a traveling salesman, Hines ate in restaurants across America.  At age 55, he and his wife sent a list of 167 recommended restaurants to their friends as a Christmas gift.  It was so popular he published a guide to hotels and motels in 1935.  After being featured in national magazines, his guide grew in popularity, and soon "Recommended by Duncan Hines" became a nationally-recognized seal of approval-- the original Trip Advisor.
  
Once his name was associated with great dining, it was a small leap to producing food products himself.  Hines began with 250 canned, bottled and boxed products.  Later the company merged with Proctor and Gamble.  Shortly after, Hines introduced the first cake mixes, which were marketed nationwide.  Today the Duncan Hines product line offers more than 80 sweet baked-good mixes and frostings.
  
As we discovered, Bowling Green was the perfect selection for letterboxing in Kentucky.  Both the convention and visitors bureau and the Corvette museum have endorsed letterboxing by planting some letterboxes of their own for visitors.  Of course, the boxes are placed in areas that are interesting to see, such as the three-span bowstring arch truss bridge over the Barren River.

  

Barren River Bridge (L) & Hobson Grove (R)