(StatePoint) For this country’s entire existence, and long before that, the land that is now called Kentucky has helped build the nation into what it is today. The Bluegrass State has contributed more than its share of explorers, diplomats, entertainers, activists, and icons to the national cause.
Here’s how to honor just a few of them on your next visit to Kentucky.
Daniel Boone is synonymous with Kentucky wilderness. In 1775, Boone connected the East Coast to Kentucky when he blazed the Boone Trace, a narrow trail through the Cumberland Gap that terminated at what is now known as Fort Boonesborough. Subsequently in 1796, the Wilderness Road was formed; a 200-mile wagon trail stretching from the Cumberland Gap to Louisville, and providing an estimated 200,000 people a path to the west.
Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator and 16th president of the United States, helped free enslaved people, while keeping the nation together during a vicious and deadly four-year Civil War. He was born in Larue County near Hodgenville in 1809.
Kentucky is the site of the first Lincoln Memorial at Abraham Lincoln Birthplace. This National Historical Park commemorates Lincoln’s life and accomplishments and features a replica of Lincoln’s birth cabin.
Another great Kentuckian who came from similarly humble beginnings is Charles Young. Born to enslaved parents in a log cabin in Mays Lick in 1864, Young would go from that log cabin near the Ohio River to the U.S. Military Academy, where he became the third black man to ever graduate.
Throughout his professional life, Young shattered racial barriers, not only as a soldier, but as an educator, diplomat and administrator. Despite a stellar military career, racial discrimination kept him from being promoted to brigadier general. A century after his death, Young was posthumously promoted to brigadier general, making him the first Black American recognized with this rank.
Kentucky honors Young’s legacy with the Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Historical Corridor, which stretches from the Camp Nelson National Monument to his birthplace cabin.
Muhammad Ali needs no introduction. However, before he was a world champion boxer, civil rights activist and philanthropist, he was a Kentuckian, born and raised in Louisville’s West End neighborhood. As a young boxer Ali won six Kentucky Golden Glove titles and two national Golden Gloves titles before winning a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympic games.
Throughout his life, Ali used his platform as the heavyweight champion of the world to advocate for racial equality and world peace and worked tirelessly to speak up for marginalized communities. Today the Muhammad Ali Center, a museum and cultural center in downtown Louisville, celebrates all aspects of “The Champ’s” legacy as an athlete and more importantly as a humanitarian.
For more information on American heroes from Kentucky and the communities that shaped them, check out www.kentuckytourism.com.
Kentucky is full of amazing people, and the places that helped make them into not only proud Kentuckians, but Americans. Come to the Bluegrass State and discover these truly American stories.
