Federal Hill

Bardstown, KY — 1922–present DRAFTING

Sheet001

ClassProperty

JurisdictionNelson Co. KY

Opened1922

StatusDRAFTING

Above the surface — the public claim

A fieldstone site has been presented to visitors as an enslaved people’s cemetery for over a century. The arrangement was installed by curator E.T. LaBree in the 1920s as part of a manufactured plantation atmosphere, and it still propagates through Wikipedia, Google Knowledge Panels, travel listings and the broader information ecosystem most visitors meet before they ever arrive.

Below the surface — the record

A 2010 Kentucky Archaeological Survey field investigation found no evidence of any burials at the site. New park markers installed in 2025 acknowledge the fabrication. The correction exists. It has not reached the public.

100+Years of fabrication

32Enslaved people named

0Burials found

The state bought the property knowing what it was. The curator invented a cemetery. The institution maintained the fiction for a century. The gap between what experts know and what visitors see is the story.