If you’re headed to Hopkinsville, Kentucky for the 2017 Eclipse, you owe it to yourself to pay a return visit AFTER the eclipse hysteria is over!

I drove to Hopkinsville from Lexington a couple of years ago to rendezvous with Kansas friends who were driving back home from Florida.  My Hopkinsville takeaway was that an afternoon isn’t nearly enough time to explore all the interesting sites there.

Here are the things I did manage to fit into my afternoon:

• Edgar Cayce lived here, so stop by the tourism office and pick up a copy of their Edgar Cayce Driving/Walking Tour brochure (or download it from their website).
  

  

  

   

• In 1955, there was a very strange and frightening incident involving what has come to be known as the Little Green Men.  You can read more about it by doing a search for the Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter, Hopkinsville Goblins Case, or Kelly Green Men Case.

• Hopkinsville has created a memorial park commemorating the Trail of Tears.  Be prepared to cry.  It’s an incredibly moving tribute to the Cherokee forced out of their homes in 1838 by President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1830 16,543 were involuntarily marched west from the southeastern United States.  Approximately 2,000 – 6,000 died from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route.  A small cemetery is part of this memorial park.
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• The Historic L & N Railroad Depot (1892) is definitely worth a stop.  With its separate “Colored People’s Waiting Room,” it was designed for the segregation era.  I realized later that I could have gotten a great photo of the depot if I’d only crossed the street, but trains were coming through and I got distracted!
  

  

  

  

  
• Although it’s only open by appointment, I enjoyed stopping at Lone Oak, a historic antebellum home dating to 1835.  Lone Oak House Museum  There was an adorable guard puppy there learning the ropes from a senior dog.  Puppy was overjoyed to have a visitor.
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  We REALLY enjoyed lunch at the Wood Shed B-B-Q & Restaurant.  I recommend the Burgoo and Chess Pie!  

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If you’d like to know more:  

 

There is a River: The Story of Edgar Cayce (Thomas Sugrue, 1997)

 

 

 

 

 

The Kelly Green Men (Geraldine Stith, 2016)