Roadside History

Book excerpt: Published by the Kentucky Historical Society and distributed by the University Press of Kentucky We have all spied them as we blast down I-75 scanning the roadside for anything of interest or rolled past one while trying to find an elusive gas station in an unfamiliar small town. Perhaps we have even stopped to read one outside the local courthouse. Since 1949, the Kentucky Historical Highway Marker program has erected more than 1,800 markers that highlight the rich diversity of the state's local and regional history as well as topics of statewide, and sometimes national, importance. They provide on-the-spot Kentucky history lessons, depicting subjects as diverse as a seven-year-old boy who served as a drummer in the Revolutionary War to a centuries-old sassafras tree. Roadside History is a key to the markers, enabling travelers to read Kentucky history without stopping to see each marker as they pass. There are two indexes arranged by subject and county.