A View from Sportsman’s Hill

In 1788, when William Whitley established a horse race track at Sportsman’s Hill, the threat of attack by a large Native American raiding party was a very real possibility, and that threat continued for the next six years. By 1794, most attacks were by small raiding parties on single individuals or small groups in isolated settings. Completed in 1794, Whitley’s home was the first brick house in Kentucky and the first west of the Allegheny Mountains, and it was visible from the Wilderness Road. The vista from atop Sportsman’s Hill above the circular track afforded a view of the surrounding area and any approaching party, and the close proximity of the house and the hill, each visible from the other, was mutually supportive if any type of attack were to occur. From the crest of the hill, race spectators could view the race in its entirety and also the surrounding area, and with the spectators grouped together there, they could move in unison to the festivities and safety of the brick house. No attack or assault ever materialized, and the thundering sound of horses’ hooves in the autumn races echoed for years unmolested about the hill.

Kentucky · United States