MADISON CO., Ky. (LEX 18) — The earliest history in Kentucky predates the state itself – and even the country. While the United States will celebrate is 250th birthday next year, Fort Boonesborough State Park in Madison County hit that milestone this year.
The park sits on the Kentucky River, and its significance dates back to April 1, 1775.
“It's an opportunity to see a pioneer craft people and learn about one of the first settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains, which is really the beginning of the American West,” Park Manager Jack Winburn said.
Winburn has fond memories at Fort Boonesborough, dating back to its debut as a state park in 1963.
“When this opened up in the 60’s, my family, we camped here all the time,” he shared. “I'm a history buff. I love history, so it just meshed together with Boonesborough and history. I started work here in the late 70’s.”
Winburn is very familiar with the history of Boonesborough, sharing that, at one point, some people wanted to establish it as a colony.
“In 1775, a party of businessmen out of North Carolina wanted to establish the 14th colony,” Winburn started. “It would be called Transylvania Colony, and Boonesborough was going to be the capital of this colony.”
“Daniel Boone and a party of 30 ax men left around the Bristol, Tennessee area in 1775 and arrived here on April 1, 1775, and began establishing what we know as Fort Boonesborough," he added. "The colony did not prosper because the American Revolutionary War started at the same time, political changes, North Carolina and Virginia colonies refused to recognize it and it faded away quickly, but the fort was active for several years.”
The years of activity included a period of more than a week when the fort was attacked and put under siege during the American Revolution. Its time as a pioneer fort ended in the 1780’s, before Kentucky earned its statehood.
“Kentucky became a state in 1792. Boonesborough had already faded away, so it was no longer needed for protection, and the settlers were spreading out and claiming their own land,” Winburn said. “It was farmland. There was a brief point it was a town of Boonesborough which failed due to flooding from the Kentucky River, which we still endure.”
Flooding in the park has persisted, with three floods affecting the fort since 2021. The most recent flood in April 2025 had a major impact to the campgrounds at the park, leading to an ongoing shutdown. The park, however, is open and the fort aspect reopened in June – just in time for a big celebration.
“Since then we hit the ground running,” Winburn said. “The first weekend we were open, we had our 250th anniversary event and we had several thousand people here on the park for that.”
You can visit the monuments where the original fort stood near the Kentucky River. Up on the hillside away from the original site sits a living replica of the fort, which includes buildings and cabins with people who reenact daily aspects of fort life.
According to the state park website, the fort is open from Wednesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Coming up on Sept. 20, the fort will have its annual reenactment of the Siege of Fort Boonesborough.
Tickets to visit the fort are $8 for adults and $5 for kids 6-12. Kids under 6 get in free.
