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Historical Marker Dedications Set Across Kentucky in May

The Kentucky Historical Society will crisscross the Commonwealth to dedicate five historical markers in May.

Here is the schedule:

May 4, 1 p.m., 30 School Road, Walton
Walton CCC Camp Bean Ridge
Civilian Conservation Corps company 3541 opened in 1935 in Walton. The 200 men stationed there specialized in soil conservation. They trained local farmers in contour farming, crop rotation and strip cropping; planted trees; built fences; and developed farm management plans. They also provided relieve during the 1937 Ohio River flood.

May 8, 10:30 a.m., CDT, Webster County Courthouse, Dixon
Webster County Courthouse
The courthouse dates to 1941 and was a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression. Architect H. Lawrence Casner, from Webster County, designed the building, as well as the Caldwell County courthouse and the main vault at Fort Knox. His wife, Arminta Bowmer Casner, made the sculptured faces on the building’s exterior walls.

May 10, 10 a.m., 118 S. First St., Louisville
First Louisville Slugger Bat
This address is the site of the original J.F. Hillerich carpentry shop. The Louisville Slugger baseball bat has its roots with Louisville Eclipse player Pete Browning’s broken baseball bat. J.F. Hillerich’s son was at the game in 1884 when it broke and offered to make a new bat for Browning. Browning got three hits with the new bat, creating a demand from his teammates for their own bats. The company trademarked “Louisville Slugger” in 1884.

May 20, 3:30 p.m. CDT, 9th and Main Streets, Hopkinsville
Ted Poston “Dean of Black Journalists”
Hopkinsville native Theodore Roosevelt Poston began his journalism career in 1936 as a freelancer for the New York Post. He went on to spend most of his career there, covering major civil rights stories of his era. Among his many awards was a Pulitzer Prize (1949).

May 28, 2 p.m., Highway 92W and Bon Hollow Road, Whitley County
Bon Jellico
The Bon Jellico coal mine operated from 1912 to 1937 and employed 350 workers. It annually produced nearly 100,000 tons of Blue Gem coal. The town included 75 houses, a three-room school/church and a company store. Around 1,500 people lived in Bon Jellico over the 25-year period the mine operated. It closed primarily because the coal supply was depleted.

More than 2,400 historical markers statewide tell Kentucky’s history. KHS administers the Kentucky Historical Marker Program in cooperation with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

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