From Bois de Forges to Breathitt County: Kentucky's World War I History

This tour highlights historical markers that commemorate significant people and places to Kentucky's history during the World War I era. The tour includes markers that celebrate famous heroes of the war, such as Willie Sandlin and Samuel Woodfill, but also touches on lesser known soldiers, such as the volunteers from Breathitt County. It visits important places where Kentuckians drilled and trained to prepare themselves for war, such as Camp Zachary Taylor and the Buell Armory, but also incorporates places like Bowman and Godman Fields where military aviation took flight in the state. The tour includes markers to influential politicians, such as Ollie James and Augustus Owsley Stanley, but also incorporates almost forgotten figures, like the inventor of a gas mask used in the trenches of France and representatives of the nurses and doctors who contributed to the war effort. Finally, it includes a few of the memorials that Kentuckians erected to commemorate the Great War.

The wide diversity of topics addressed in these tour stops indicates the many ways in which World War I shaped the lives of those Kentuckians who lived through it, whether or not the war took them out of the state.