Mercer County

Well, we are up to number nineteen.  We have had so much fun up to this point.  Our year will be over and all the counties seen, before we know it.  We planned this weekends trip around the Burgoo Festival in Anderson County.  We looked at the map and thought we would only visit three counties on this outing, I guess plans, like rules, are made to be broken. You will find out more about that over the next few posts.  But for now we will cover a bit of history and our visit to Mercer County.

MERCER COUNTY BACKGROUND

Mercer County was formed in 1784 and was the sixth county formed in the Commonwealth.  Harrodsburg is the county seat.  The county was named for General Hugh Mercer, a Revolutionary War hero and close friend of George Washington.

The city of Harrodsburg has the distinction of being the first permanent English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains, having been settled in 1774.  It was originally call Harrod's Town and was founded by James Harrod.  In 1776 Harrod's Town became the county seat of Kentucky County, Virginia.  It later became the county seat of Lincoln County and finally became the Mercer County seat when it was formed in 1784.

Besides Old Fort Harrod, one of the best known sites in Mercer County is Shakertown at Pleasant Hill.  The Shakers were a Christian sect that saw their peak in the late 1800's.  By 1805 the Shakers had found their way to Kentucky.  By the mid-1850's Pleasant Hill had become one of the largest Shaker communities in America.  There were over 600 residents occupying 250 building on 2,800 acres.  For numerous reasons, the community folded in 1910 and the residents deeded the land to a private citizen.  However, in 1966 a group of concerned citizens founded a non-profit organization to restore the village and educate people about the Shaker way of life.

OUR VISIT

Our trip to Mercer County started out along U.S. 68.  We wound our way out of Jessamine County and crossed the Kentucky River near Pleasant Hill.  Of course we had to stop.  Unbeknown to us, there was a festival going on that weekend, so there were people everywhere.  And because we knew we had two other counties to get to, we walked around the outside of the village and drove through most of the park.  Being a fan of architecture, I love all of the old buildings at a place like this.  Going back to Shakertown and having lunch at the restaurant there is one of the things that will be on our "gotta go back" list.

After checking out Shakertown, we made our way to Harrodsburg.  I had no idea it was the first permanent settlement in Kentucky or that it was the county seat of Kentucky County.  But, the first thing we did was to find our way downtown, because we also like to check the courthouse if we can.  Much to our surprise, there was no court house.  They are in the process of building a new one.  So we took in a little bit of downtown and headed over to Old Fort Harrod.

What stands today as Old Fort Harrod is a reproduction of the original fort.  The original actually stood where today's parking lot is located.  The most fascinating part of the park to me was the old pioneer graveyard.   I'm going to break from my norm on this post and put up several pictures of the plaques and memorials at the park. 

 

We had one last stop on our trip through Mercer County.  As those of you that know us, our youngest son is quite inquisitive.  During one of our last outings, he asked to see the map, it is only a Kentucky map, mind you.  So we let him see it.  It wasn't long, before he said "I found Nevada".  We told him he was wrong, we were in Kentucky.  But he insisted he had found Nevada and finally showed us.  Sure enough, there it was; Nevada, Kentucky.  In case you haven't figured it out yet, Nevada is in Mercer County.  Not much to see, except the sign, but we saw it!  The funny thing is, he also found Texas, but it is in Washington County and we were on our way there.