Visitor Centers in Kentucky

Locust Grove was built around 1790 by Major William Croghan and his wife, Lucy Clark Croghan in Louisville, Kentucky. Lucy was William Clark’s sister. Locust Grove was visited by a number of national figures, including James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, John James Audubon, and Aaron Burr.

The Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1990 to protect, conserve, and restore habitat for wildlife native to the river’s floodplain. The refuge consists of twenty-two islands and four mainland tracts scattered along 362 miles of the upper Ohio River. Most of the refuge’s 3440 acres of land and underwater habitat are located in West Virginia; however, Pennsylvania and Kentucky each have two refuge islands.

The William Clark Market House Museum offers visitors a glimpse into the historical past of the town of Paducah, KY. The Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, visited the area in 1803 where they contracted the services of Charles Drouillard, a half-Shawnee, half-French interpreter, hunter, and trapper who would be integral to their mission of westward exploration. 

Located near the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers outside of Wickliffe, Kentucky, the Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site preserves an ancient Mississippian archeological site which dates back to A.D. 1100-1350. Since its opening in 1932, the museum has displayed prehistoric artifacts excavated from onsite, including pottery and stone tools, that offer a glimpse into the distant past of Native American cultures along the Mississippi River.

The Golden Pond Visitor Center serves as an information center for the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area which welcomes 1.5 million visitors a year. Located on a peninsula between Kentucky and Barkley lakes in western Kentucky and Tennessee, this sprawling natural area boasts a unique mix of forests, wetlands, and open lands covering 170,000 acres.

The Filson Historical Society can only be described as a hidden gem tucked away in downtown Louisville, KY. The Society was founded on May 15, 1884 by ten men, mostly amateur historians based in Louisville, led by Reuben T. Durrett. The Society takes its name from Kentucky’s first historian, John Filson, whose map of the state and book, The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, brought him fame in 1784.

Big Bone Lick State Park is recognized as the key to understanding the life of the Ice Age on the North American continent over 10,000 years ago. The area was well known to local indigenous populations, such as the Delaware and Shawnee, who relied springs for salt and game. A 1744 map Louisiana marks it as the "place where they found the elephant bones in 1739." Early explorers noted that the large bones lay scattered throughout the valley.