NOTE: This Rural Driving Tour is a large tour and the map covers a lot of ground in Mercer County. You may want to select the sites you want to visit on your computer to help you plan your day (our map is large and mobile phone screens are small!) We have made it as mobile friendly as possible, but it may be more enjoyable if you select which of the sites you most want to see before you get behind the wheel!
(However, you should use your mobile phone at each site to capture the QR codes on our historical markers and do a deeper dive into the history of the place where you are standing!)
43. Mercer County Fair & Horse Show
52A. Maple Grove Cemetery
3. John L. Bridges House / Burford Hill
54. William McAfees Station / Round Ridge (Station)
55. FontaineBleau / Hite's Station (Station)
55A. Thomas Logan House
57. James McAfee Station (Station)
58. James McCoun's Station / Millwood (Station)
61. New Providence Presbyterian Church
70. Fairview
71. Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill ★
72. John McMurtry's Station (Station)
73. John Gordon's Station (Station)
63. Walnut Hall / David W. Thompson House
64. David Williams' Station (Station)
65. Hugh McGary's Station (Station)
66. Thomas Denton's Station (Station)
67. William W. Goddard House / Wildwood
68. Abraham Chapline Plantation / Rufus Henry Vandarsdall House
69. Matthias Yocum's Station (Station)
74. Stephen Trigg's Station (Station)
75. Jacob Froman's Station (Station)
76. George Corn's Station (Station)
77. Lewis Rose's Station (Station)
78. Alexander Robertson's Station (Station)
79. John Bowman's Station (Station)
80. Azor Ree's Station (Station)
81. Glenworth / Robert Mosby Davis House
82. John Bunton's Station (Station)
Pioneer Stations in Mercer County
What is a Pioneer Station?
These frontier structures were used by early settlers to protect themselves primarily from Indian attacks but also served as protection from wild animals and other dangers.
These stations were "little forts" of sorts, usually built of logs and surrounded by high fences.
Pioneer Stations were built to be easily defended and could be built for a single family, a few families or a larger group of families, depending on the need for "strength in numbers" for survival in a given area.
Early Kentucky-area settlers (then a part of Virginia) were required to build a dwelling on the land, have it surveyed, and plant a corn crop to "settle" their land.
There were a number of Pioneer Stations built inside and outside Mercer County to settle land that would eventually become Kentucky. (View an 1874 sketched map of nearby Pioneer Stations.)
