Fort Hill Overlooking the Kentucky River

The hill north of downtown Frankfort overlooking the Kentucky River, once called Blanton’s Hill, has been known as Fort Hill since at least the Civil War and may earlier have held a small log fortification during the frontier era. During the Civil War, two earthwork forts were built there to protect Kentucky’s pro-Union state government and the strategically important bridges across the Kentucky River at Frankfort from Confederate attack. Construction of the first fort, Fort Boone, began in April, 1863, too late to save the Frankfort railroad bridge burned by Confederates during their 1862 occupation of the town. In June, 1864, local militiamen manning Fort Boone repelled an attack by a detachment of General John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate cavalry. Federal authorities later built a second, much stronger fort atop the hill before the war ended in 1865. After the Civil War the forts were abandoned, and the hill returned to farmland until, nearly a century later, owner Leslie Morris donated it to the City of Frankfort for use as a public park. Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill now preserves the Civil War forts, the site of the 1864 skirmish, and about 125 acres of forest in the middle of Frankfort, with historic tours, special events, nature trails, and a visitor center in an 1810 log house.

Frankfort, Kentucky · United States