MAYSVILLE, Ky. — The log post office in Old Washington is open for business as usual.

        But with frigid temperatures keeping tourists away, the visitors center and museums in the historic frontier community were locked up tight this week.

Austin Adamson, 5, leaves the Washington Post Office in Maysville, Ky., on Thursday. (Rhonda Simpson photo) | ZOOM |

        The bite of the arctic air and snow-slick rock walks had Washington looking like a ghost town, except for the parade of residents getting their mail from one of the few log post offices still in operation.

        “We've never closed,” said Mary Tull, postmaster and sole employee in the tiny building that sits on a route once ridden by the Pony Express. “I've been here on days when it was so bad I'd not see two people. But we were open.”

        When it's really cold, Ms. Tull said, she simply throws a few extra logs in the stone fireplace.

        It's not that easy for Kentucky's farmers, many of whom are having to chop through the icy crusts of ponds and streams to provide water for their livestock.

        “The cold weather is hard on livestock, just as it is humans,” said Mark Farrow, chief of staff for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “Usually if they're well-fed and watered, they handle it pretty well.”

        Keith Berger, a forecaster for the National Weather Service office in Jackson, said eastern Kentucky has had below-freezing temperatures for the past 10 days.

        Barge traffic has been slowed on the Mississippi River in Illinois and Minnesota due to ice, but along the western tip of Kentucky, cargo continues to move north and south on the river.

        The Ohio River and its tributaries have not been affected.

        “We've got enough traffic to keep the ice broken up,” said Domenico Chianesi, navigation manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Huntington, W.Va.

        “As of right now, it's not affecting us. But as long as the cold stays, that potential is there.”

        “We're not used to real winters anymore,” Mr. Berger said, adding that it was the second-coldest December in 20 years.

Kidnapped, freed, and now missing
Man jailed over death of fetus
An $857K silk purse made from sows' ears
Cold has city scrambling to fix broken water lines
New laws take aim at education
School funding hangs over assembly
A few education bills are on docket
Assembly expected to put focus on teachers
Cold hard on Kentucky communities
Cops can't ID body in trash bin
Dayton considers going upscale
Drug court arrives in eastern Ky.
Episcopalians, Lutherans will team up as of Sunday
Fairfield seeking volunteer planners
HOWARD: Neighborhoods
It all began in the middle
Lawmaker wants to require less tailpipe testing
MCNUTT: Development
Online college expands
Police find loyal friends
Turmoil engulfs Villa Hills
Warren tourism up despite downpours
Kentucky News Briefs
Tristate A.M. Report