FRANKFORT, Ky. — As you travel across Kentucky, you’ll find historical markers on the side of the road, near places like race tracks and cemeteries.
What You Need To Know
- The Kentucky Historical Society says it has a backlog of historical markers in need of refurbishment or replacement
- There are 2,500 historical markers in Kentucky, with at least one in each county, according to KHS
- KHS has been auditing the markers and says it has replaced or refurbished 82 of them in 57 counties over the last year
- The executive director of KHS spoke to a committee of lawmakers Tuesday, asking for funding to sustain the program
The condition they are in varies, but some are so weathered you can barely read them.
Kurt Krouse, chair of the St. Paul Parish Historical Preservation Ministry, has taken an interest in the markers in Fayette County.
“It doesn’t look like anyone cares about it any more,” he said, referring to a marker for the Pioneer Burying Ground in Lexington, where victims of the cholera epidemic were buried in the 1800s.
"It’s rusted, it’s flaking, it’s not resting correctly on the standard," he said.
Krouse has been auditing and photographing markers across the county, including a weathered one that commemorates Kentucky’s first racecourse.
“It’s about community, but it’s also about the things that happened here," said Krouse. "This marker, for instance, is talking about the first racecourse in Kentucky. Kentucky’s known for horses. We probably ought to have a marker that looks a little better than what it is right now.”
The markers, such as one on display at Keeneland that appears in need of restoration, are part of a backlog that the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) is working on, according to Scott Alvey, the agency's executive director.
Tuesday afternoon, Alvey, Krouse and Foster Ockerman Jr., chief historian of the Lexington History Museum, spoke to Kentucky lawmakers in a joint committee on tourism.
"One could argue that the markers are historic in their own right," Krouse told the committee. "As we have seen, many are in need of attention and thankfully, several have been renewed or replaced through the efforts of the Kentucky Historical Society and the local community."
To pay for all of the markers that as of 2019 need a refurbishment, a new post or a replacement, it would take more than $300,000 from community sponsors, Alvey told lawmakers.
"Even if we were meeting that ... it would take us, at the rate we were going, 20 years to clear that backlog," he added.
The society has been auditing the 2,500 markers across the Commonwealth and replaced or refurbished 82 of them in 57 counties over the last year, Alvey said.
"At one time, we believe that there were about 200 to 210 markers that were in this condition that needed some sort of refurbishment or repair, but that cost is borne by the local community and that cost is usually somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 to get these markers done, so you can kind of do the math that it’s a pretty big bill to try to get all these cleared," he told Spectrum News 1. "What we’re looking for is how do we take that support to get these repairs done off the local community sponsors who have already helped raise awareness of the program and how can we bring that funding in from the Kentucky Historical Society so that we can help support Kentucky’s local history."
The agency asks the public to report damaged or missing markers by contacting KHS.
To find the locations of historical markers across the Commonwealth, you can download the Explore Kentucky History app here.