The effort to make Kentucky’s Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park part of the National Park Service has gotten a congressional boost.
Sixth District Representative Andy Barr visited the Jessamine County Civil War site Thursday morning. He is seeking congressional co-sponsors to back legislation for a feasibility study. Barr says such a review could itself take three years.
He says making it into the National Park Service within five years might be a bit ambitious. Typically the entire process could takeas long as a decade. “There’s competition from other historical sites around the country and a limited budget for the National Park Service,” said Barr.
Camp Nelson was a key Civil War training center. Stephen McBride, Director of Interpretation and Archeology, says many escaped slaves also came to Jessamine County. “We were the largest recruitment camp for African American Soldiers in Kentucky and one of the largest in the United States,” explained McBride.
County officials have been working to make Camp Nelson attractive for entry into the Park Service. Jessamine County Judge David West says the county has purchased several acres around the site, “We could not have been considered for a national park without having the contiguous acres that we got with that.”
West says greatly expanded exposure through National Park designation would result in a boost in tourism dollars. ?
