Young Mary's Record

Q&A with Park Mammoth Resort’s Nick Noble

Young Mary’s Record is delighted to welcome Nick Noble, the owner of Park Mammoth Resort and Hotel - the hosting venue of this weekend’s much-anticipated Stucky Music Festival !  Nick was sweet enough to give us the skinny on his own history with Park Mammoth, the many neat offerings at the resort, and special rates for Stucky Music Festival attendees. 

Young Mary’s Record: Hi Nick.  Introduce yourself to the YMR gang and tell us about you and your resort, Park Mammoth Resort and Hotel.

Nick Noble: My name is Nick Noble and my brother, Nate and I purchased Park Mammoth 3.5 years ago.  It is a beautiful 2,000 acre resort that we fell in love with the second we stepped foot on it.  For the first 14 years of our careers,  we were in corporate America and worked our way up the ranks to become sales and marketing executives.  We got sick of the corporate life and decided to set out on our own.  We weren’t sure what we wanted to do, but felt that we had some very  valuable business experience under our belt.  Our main goal was to develop a business around our passions.  Having grown up in the mountains of Colorado we knew that our next business venture would have something to do with the outdoors.  So, we took an inventory of our passions and built a business plan around developing a world class shooting sports resort.  That’s how we found Park Mammoth.

YMR:  You mentioned that you bought Park Mammoth with your brother – that’s a big investment, what did you fall in love with about the place or the area, or both, or neither that convinced you on the decision?

NN: Park Mammoth is an amazing place.  It was built in 1964 as a golf resort and we fell in love with it because of its amazing infrastructure.  It is very nostalgic and is like stepping back in time.   The 100 guest room hotel sits up on a ridge 150’ above the Mammoth Cave Sink Hole Basin.  The view from our Lookout Restaurant is unbelievable and would rival any restaurant view..anywhere.  You can see for almost 20 miles; sometimes it’s like eating lunch in the clouds.   We serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week and we are famous for our “pan fried chicken.”  Ms. Clara has been frying chicken at Park Mammoth for over 40 years! 

YMR: We are all about some fried chicken.  Count us in.

NN:   The hotel not only has a great restaurant, but also three conference rooms for meetings, banquets, reunions, etc.  We also have 18 holes of golf at our Cave Valley Golf Club.  75% of our golfers come from Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio and most of the groups have been coming for over 20 years.

NN: We founded the Rockcastle Shooting Center in 2010 and it has quickly become one of the premiere shooting range facilities in the world.  We have been featured on national TV over 15 times and are most famous for hosting major national and international level shooting competitions.  We will host over 50 shooting competitions in 2013 and will have visitors from all over the world.

 In 2011, we founded the Cave Valley Winery.  Edmonson County was dry and we challenged it and won.  We have a 2 acre vineyard and will start producing our own wines this year.  Currently in our Wine Bar at the hotel we feature several Kentucky Small Farm Wineries.  The whole Kentucky wine scene is a neat story and we are proud to be part of it.

YMR: What’s different about Park Mammoth than other chains that you might wheel into from the Interstate?

NN: When is the last time you checked into a hotel and got a three inch brass key?  This world has gone so corporate cookie-cutter that you can get off any exit of any interstate in America and get the same vanilla experience.  Not so at exit 48 on I-65 in Kentucky. 

YMR: For folks attending Stucky Music Festival and being introduced to Park Mammoth for the first time – what do you hope that they’ll take away about your resort?

NN: There is a lot more to do here than just this festival. Lodging, restaurant, winery, shooting sports, and golf.  We host a ton of weddings and will continue having live music at the winery every Saturday evening through the summer.  It’s a great place to hang out.  We very close to Bowling Green, just 30 minutes.

YMR:  Are you a music-lover yourself?  What’s a favorite artist or record of yours?

NN: I love music.  Growing up in Durango, Colorado one of our favorite summer trips was the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.  Two of my favorite bands are from Boulder, Colorado, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and The Samples.  My all-time favorite band is U2 and I listen to all kinds of music from country to rap.

YMR:   We’ve been listening over and over to this Johnny Cash cover of One for the last day, so U2 is a great choice.

YMR: Tell me about the special rates for Stucky Music Festival and pertinent information for folks attending the music and also staying at the hotel rather than camping.  Is there a shuttle?  A far walk? 

NN: We are offering a special rate of $69 for a room at the lodge during the Stucky Music Festival.  We will have a shuttle that will leave on the hour and take folks to the hotel. 

YMR: What do you love about being in the hotel industry?

NN:  I love delivering a unique experience.  That’s what we try to do at Park Mammoth.  It is great to meet people from all corners of the globe and our goal is for them to leave saying…. 

“That was just like staying and Nick and Nate’s house, everyone treated us like family.”

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Interested in drifting off into dreamland after a long wonderful day of music and festivites in a warm king size bed and starting your next day with a refreshing hot shower?  That’s where we’ll be.  To book at Park Mammoth, their official website is HERE and you can ring them up at 270.749.4101.  

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Melissa in Lovely Things : Dress For Fests

Very excited to introduce you to Melissa — a style icon and true beauty - plus a very favorite person of ours.  Melissa is a natural at mixing and matching textiles, color, and styles in her clothes and accessories — We’ve been watching her for a while - We’re creeps. — and she never disappoints — flawlessly dressing herself for a range of occasions, parties, shows, adventures.  Without further ado, please welcome our new Young Mary’s Record series, Melissa in Lovely Things.

Today’s post is dedicated to dressing for fests.  From Melissa:

With festival season upon us, the airy and romantic hippie-chic look is always a favorite.  Not only is it easy to throw on and go, but it’s also extremely comfortable when you’re spending those long days (and nights) in the summer heat.

What YMR Loves: Melissa’s hair in long, soft waves is an immediate aesthetic nod to this dress. 

Melissa’s right again:

Carefree is the way to be ladies, so this summer let your hair down and embrace the summer air in your flower-child finest.

Melissa’s Dress by Jen’s Pirate Booty, DIY flower crown.

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Any Song Can Be Improved: Our House

Our New Young Mary’s Records Series: “Any Song Can Be Improved” is brought to you by Kentucky Prophet - an improver of all things, music included.  You can see his official blog: HERE.

Jim Lehrer has the look of a beaten man. In a short period of time, he has gone from moderating the first Presidential Debate on national TV and basic cable 24-hour news outlets… to moderating a U.S. Senate debate on local public television in Connecticut.

Linda McMahon, Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and wife of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, is talking at the only functional podium on the stage. Her opponent, Congressman Chris Murphy’s podium has been demolished with a sledgehammer wielded by McMahon’s son-in-law, fourteen-time WWE Champion Triple H.

“The thing about ‘Our House’ by Madness,” continued Linda McMahon “is that it evokes a true happiness with poverty. A strength-in-numbers, as some call it. I don’t expect Connecticut voters to enjoy poverty but I believe that if we unite as one, we can accomplish some incredible things and get this state back on the winning track.”

“All I asked was about your ideas about fixing the stage budget deficit,” Lehrer moans before putting his head in his hands.

McMahon: “I’ve never been a big fan of music, per se. But I’ve always enjoyed that little song, ‘Our House’. It almost made me wish Vince, the kids and I were lower-middle class! But only for three-and-a-half minutes. Plus they don’t seem as dirty as Dexy’s Midnight Runners.”

“Does my microphone work?” Murphy asks, but no one hears, because it doesn’t.

McMahon: “There’s only one thing I really hated about ‘Our House’, and it comes about a minute and twenty seconds into the song when during the chorus somebody starts singing “Something tells you that you got to…”

She trails off before regaining her composure. “I never understood what was being said there. But it threw me off and I never liked it and I wish they had never done it. It sounds like an ad-lib that the band forgot to turn down.”

“YOU DON’T HAVE A HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE OF A STREET! YOU OWN LARGE PARCELS OF LAND WHERE YOU BUILD MANSIONS!” Chris Murphy is yelling but is barely being picked up by the lone microphone on stage, which is on McMahon’s platform. “YOU HAVE NO PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE IN GOVERNMENT OR BUSINESS! YOU’RE THE WIFE OF A CARNY WHO HAPPENS TO HAVE A LOT OF MONEY.”

Triple H returns to hit Murphy in the back with a steel chair, Murphy falls to the floor and is picked up for Triple H’s finishing move, “The Pedigree”. With that, Linda McMahon and her son-in-law (who is not wearing pants through any of this) stand center stage over the broken body of a Congressman while her campaign theme plays: “No chance! You’ve got no chance in hell!”

Jim Lehrer takes an ibuprofen with a shot of bourbon and cries a little. Fade to black.