Rip Van Winkle has been in the back of my mind since I learned a couple months ago that a local garden and home, whose location in Louisiana is known as 'Jefferson Island', was established by a fellow named Joseph Jefferson just after the Civil War. (I'd always assumed it was named after President Thomas Jefferson.) Joe Jefferson was a traveling actor, one of a family of actors in the northeastern United States. He gained fame and success performing a one-man show about Rip Van Winkle across many years, in the US and abroad.

'Rip Van Winkle' is a short story that was written by Washington Irving and published in 1820. It has been an established part of American folklore. I'm including a link to the story that I hope is true to the original publication.
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/RipVan.shtml

(this image is of Joseph Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle, taken by Napoleon Sarony in 1869, made available through Wikimedia Commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Jefferson_as_Ripvanwinkle_by_Napoleon_SArony_%281821-1896%29.jpg )