Pennyrile Forest State Park Campground

Pennyrile Forest State Park Campground

The first “camper” at Pennyrile Forest was a fellow named John Thompson. He had traveled west from Virginia way back in 1808, looking for a new place to homestead. He pushed over the Cumberland Gap, across the Great Wilderness and onward, eventually making it to what is now known as the Tradewater River (you cross it on the way in from Dawson Springs). Winter was approaching, so ol’ John decided to house himself and his family under a big rock shelter, located on park grounds. He lived for over a year under the rock and then settled down for good in a house he built, with a few families joining him in later years. As decades passed, much of the area farmland became worn out. The Commonwealth of Kentucky acquired the park in the 1940s and has managed the 15,000 acres as a state forest and park ever since. I can’t say for sure, but I think John Thompson would like the family campground and the activities that now take place in and around the hollow where he settled. Just bring your tent so you won’t have to camp under a rock.

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