In Eastern Kentucky the terrain is so steep that the only decent place to build a house is right beside the creek. Thousands of streams lace the terrain, and houses cluster shoulder to shoulder along their banks. Generations of families have passed on their sparse plots of flatland to their heirs. For the sake of fairness, they give each a sliver of land that fronts the creek. Modern property maps describe a maze of strange shaped lots, like the intricate cracks in the glaze of old china wear - a matrix that is almost organic. It is easy to come to the conclusion that the family doesn’t own the stream, but the stream owns them.