Bowling Green Living
Contact Us
  • Home
  • The Buzz
    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Local band nominated for Grammy Award

    36 Hours in Bowling Green

    Bowling Green CVB wins three industry awards

    Taking Fashion Outdoors

    Bowling Green named one of the most affordable cities

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Mobile Grocery to honor Community Leader

    High-speed Internet coming to rural Warren County

    High-speed Internet coming to rural Warren County

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

  • Features
  • The Dish
  • The Style
  • The Arts
  • The Magazine
    • Pickup Locations
    • About
No Result
View All Result
Bowling Green Living
  • Home
  • The Buzz
    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Local band nominated for Grammy Award

    36 Hours in Bowling Green

    Bowling Green CVB wins three industry awards

    Taking Fashion Outdoors

    Bowling Green named one of the most affordable cities

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Mobile Grocery to honor Community Leader

    High-speed Internet coming to rural Warren County

    High-speed Internet coming to rural Warren County

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

    Rustic Nail to to be featured on HGTV program

  • Features
  • The Dish
  • The Style
  • The Arts
  • The Magazine
    • Pickup Locations
    • About
No Result
View All Result
Bowling Green Living
No Result
View All Result
Home Features

A Decade of Unbridled Spirit: How Cory Ramsey brought The Outdoorsman to Life

Telia Butler by Telia Butler
September 29, 2019
in Features
0 0
0
A Decade of Unbridled Spirit: How Cory Ramsey brought The Outdoorsman to Life
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

It was only fitting to meet The Outdoorsman Cory Ramsey for an interview over a hike at Shanty Hollow. The Outdoorsman arrived in the mugginess of a July afternoon in his signature straight leg blue jeans, boots, and Bowling Green Metalforming ball cap. Perhaps the biggest difference between the 2009 Cory Ramsey and 2019 version was the full beard. Officially a decade after his first rise to statewide stardom, we set off down the trail toward the waterfall, while he retold the story of becoming an expert influencer years before social media.

In the summer of 2009, Ramsey was working on a factory line at Bowling Green Metalforming. The Hickman, Ky. native was a transplant to Bowling Green thanks to WKU. The plant announced it was laying-off several employees for a couple of months because of the economic downturn that hit the whole country. Ramsey, a broadcast journalism graduate turned welder, suddenly had “vacation” time to kill.

“This place here was actually lay-off hike number four. At the time, no one else was coming out here,” Ramsey said while we climbed over a log in the middle of the trail. “It’s not like it is today. There wouldn’t be anybody else here.” 

Ramsey’s lay-off hikes became the foundation for his new expertise. He went on more than twenty hikes in a just a couple of months. And then it happened. 

“This notion hits to be a travel writer,” Ramsey said, just before he pointed out a tiny frog camouflaged on a rock and warned me to watch out for snakes instead. “I looked for local media opportunities to be an expert on one thing.”

SOKY Happenings magazine was Ramsey’s first chance to tell hiking stories. After a simple ask and conversation about what he’d been doing on 20-plus hikes, the publisher gave him an opportunity to write an article about hiking in southern Kentucky. Then the momentum picked up when he called an old journalism friend from his WKU days, Laura Rogers, the host of Midday Live at WBKO TV in Bowling Green. Ramsey’s first TV segment was “How to Pack a Backpack.”

“The ‘Outdoorsman’ name came about because Laura needed a title about who I was. Thought of Hiker or Adventurer, but settled on Outdoorsman,” Ramsey said. 

The magazine article and TV spots were a hit. The Outdoorsman took his expertise to the radio airwaves when longtime D.J. and local personality Tony Rose hosted The Outdoorsman on his morning show. Now the host of Tony Rose Live on D93 WDNS radio in Bowling Green, Rose remembers The Outdoorsman shenanigans well.

“Having the chance to hear and share the stories that Cory collected over the years with our audience has opened the doors to adventures for our listeners that are right in our own backyard,” Rose said. 

By the fall of 2009, The Outdoorsman had monthly segments on TV and radio, plus a monthly local magazine article. He was your go-to guy for hiking tips all over Kentucky. If you look hard enough through the social media vaults of Facebook, you might find photos of The Outdoorsman with these media personalities on his journey to influencer fame. 

But The Outdoorsman wasn’t just making a local splash. A friend sent a video of a TV segment to Elaine Wilson, the director of the newly-developed Kentucky Adventure Tourism office in Frankfort. Adventure Tourism was working on a project designed to get more publicity for Kentucky State Parks, and was in need of a few representatives to travel the Commonwealth and share stories of its land. The Outdoorsman was a perfect fit. 

The Unbridled Adventure Tour took Ramsey all over the state as he became an ambassador for Kentucky Tourism and state parks. Writing blogs and making videos of hikes and unique travels gave The Outdoorsman even more opportunities to find a niche audience. Encouraging people to get outside and experience nature is a positive message that’s being reinforced even more so today given how much society relies on technology. 

Over the next few years, it led to The Outdoorsman being featured on the cover of Kentucky Living magazine three times. Even Camping Life magazine called and gave him national exposure. By 2012, at the dawn of social media influencing, Ramsey had a new spin on his travels. Called Map Dot, Kentucky, Ramsey put together a group of road trippers from his tourism and media contacts. The group ventured on mini trips all over the state and shared photos and stories along the way, becoming social media sensations. The Map Dot crew visited all 120 Kentucky counties twice, was featured on every major TV station from Pikeville to Paducah, took interviews from newspapers all over the Commonwealth, and Ramsey landed a TV documentary on KET produced by State Run Media. 

It was on the Map Dot journey that Ramsey met his future wife, Mrs. Map Dot. Monica Spees Ramsey was a Bowling Green Daily News reporter in 2014, assigned to cover a story on a traveling Mutual of Omaha team stopping at the National Corvette Museum to hold auditions for its “Aha!” moment commercials. Ramsey was auditioning, sharing the Map Dot story and the timing was just right for an interview. 

“He may not have been featured in the commercial, but I like to think that we both had an ‘Aha’ moment that day,” Monica said. “Cory likes to say I wrote a story about him and he liked it so well that he married me. I knew my writing skills would come in handy someday.”

Ramsey’s experience as The Outdoorsman is a nostalgic reminder of what it was like to become an influencer in the days before targeted posts and live streaming social media.

“You had to do it the old-fashioned way back then. There weren’t these social media celebrities,” Ramsey said. “You had real TV, real newspapers and magazines. I have a lot of people to thank for that help and am curious to see what the next generation comes up with while I step back and support.” 

We made it to the Shanty Hollow waterfall, then ran into another hiker taking photos. The Outdoorsman happened to know them as a former co-worker, and they said they’ve been hiking more ever since he preached about it back in the day. The Outdoorsman said he’s retired. For now.

 

Share138TweetSendPin
Previous Post

BOWLING GREEN AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HONORS LOCAL OUTSTANDING MEMBERS

Next Post

Courage, Confidence, and Character: the DNA of every Girl Scout

Telia Butler

Telia Butler

Next Post
A Decade of Unbridled Spirit: How Cory Ramsey brought The Outdoorsman to Life

Courage, Confidence, and Character: the DNA of every Girl Scout

A Decade of Unbridled Spirit: How Cory Ramsey brought The Outdoorsman to Life

5 Ways to Grow Healthy Kids

A Decade of Unbridled Spirit: How Cory Ramsey brought The Outdoorsman to Life

A Rich History for Lost River Cave

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

FEATURED POST

‘Created for Me’

‘Created for Me’

June 18, 2018
‘I Still Have Faith’

‘I Still Have Faith’

February 15, 2018
‘The Most Wonderful Place’

‘The Most Wonderful Place’

October 31, 2018

“OUR TOWN” Awards

June 24, 2019

EDITOR'S PICKS

Building a Firm Foundation: Why You Should Consider Premarital Counseling

December 18, 2019

When Love Takes its Time: The Dearbones couldn’t run from fate

December 18, 2019

Tea Cookies and Traditions: Riley’s Bakery thru the generations

December 18, 2019

The “7”: the Steens are steeped in the Morris Jewelry story

December 18, 2019

A modern getaway: eight16house

December 18, 2019

Through Struggles a Lifelong Dream is Born

December 18, 2019

SOCIAL

  • 8 Followers
  • 2.1k Followers
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instagram

Recent News

Building a Firm Foundation: Why You Should Consider Premarital Counseling

Building a Firm Foundation: Why You Should Consider Premarital Counseling

December 18, 2019
The “7”: the Steens are steeped in the Morris Jewelry story

When Love Takes its Time: The Dearbones couldn’t run from fate

December 18, 2019

Categories

  • 40 Under 40
  • Dining Guide
  • Features
  • Home Tips from the Pros
  • Maker's Holiday
  • The Arts
  • The Buzz
  • The Dish
  • The Getaway
  • The Style
  • Wedding Guide

About Us

Bowling Green Living is a city lifestyle magazine written for and about Bowling Green, featuring in-depth stories on people and places, along with pieces on home interiors, arts, entertainment, food, fashion, wellness and travel.

Copyright © 2017 Bowling Green Living Magazine, a Tanner Publishing Magazine. All Rights Reserved
Site by Tanner+West Advertising and Design Agency

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • The Buzz
  • Features
  • The Dish
  • The Style
  • The Arts

Copyright © 2017 Bowling Green Living Magazine, a Tanner Publishing Magazine. All Rights Reserved
Site by Tanner+West Advertising and Design Agency