Proposal from the Jenny Wiley Association, Inc.,
regarding the use of a portion of Kentucky Route 3051 at Auxier, Kentucky,
for an interpretive trail concerning the life of Jenny Wiley,
and a history of Harman's Station


 
The Jenny Wiley Association, Inc. is a non-profit corporation, having a membership composed in large part of the descendants of Jenny Sellards Wiley. The Jenny Wiley Association, Inc., seeks to promote and preserve the memory of Jenny Wiley and her heroism during the frontier days of Floyd County, Kentucky.

It has come to the attention of the membership of the Jenny Wiley Association, Inc., that a portion of Kentucky 3051, winding through an area in Auxier, Kentucky referred to as Ford’s Gap, will soon be transferred from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s highway system to the road system of the Floyd County Fiscal Court. This particular portion of Kentucky Route 3051 had been closed to traffic some time ago by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet owing to the clean-up of a massive and illegal garbage dump that had existed for over forty (40) years in the Ford’s Gap area. Because it is believed that this section of Kentucky Route 3051 follows the actual trait that Jenny Wiley took when she made her courageous escape from the Cherokee in 1790, the Jenny Wiley Association, Inc., would propose the following potential uses of this section of Kentucky Route 3051 once a transfer of the roadway to the Floyd County Fiscal Court has been effected.

First, the Jenny Wiley Association, Inc. would propose that funding be provided for an interpretive trail that would commence at the area where Kentucky Route 3051 is currently closed and continue to a point overlooking the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River at the area where Harman’s Station was situated. At the point overlooking Harman’s Station, we would request that sufficient room be created for an automobile turnaround, thus allowing automobiles to enter the interpretive trail through Auxier and Ford’s Gap, and, then, to turn and exit the trail through the area from whence they came.

We would propose that funding be obtained for signage to be installed along the interpretive trail in the following manner. First, a sign providing a brief narrative of the life of Jenny Sellards Wiley would be installed at the beginning of the trail. A second sign, installed midway on the trail, would provide a history of the establishment of Harman’s Station and the Blockhouse Bottom settlement. The third sign, which would be installed at the point overlooking Harman’s Station itself, would tell the story of the captivity and escape of Jenny Wiley.

The Jenny Wiley Association, Inc., would also make this proposal as a means of potentially laying the groundwork for funding a replica of Harman’s Station. We are aware that the City of Prestonsburg has made reference to the existence of the Jenny Wiley Trail on the site of the Stone Crest Golf Course and are also aware that a portion of the Jenny Wiley Trail has also been presently identified and set aside in the area referred to as Lick Fork of Jennie’s Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky. We also offer this proposal as way of unifying all portions of the Jenny Wiley Trail and as a logical addition to the County Music Highway Work Plan being developed by the Southern & Eastern Kentucky Tourism Development Association (wherein the Harmans Station site is listed as Site ID No. 51 to Appendix A: Corridor Resource Inventory).
 

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