Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The National Park Service is pleased to announce the reopening of the Camp Nelson National Monument Visitor Center on June 16. The visitor center and museum will be open Wednesdays through Sundays, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. The grounds of the park, including more than four miles of trails and interpretive markers, are open dawn to dusk every day, including Mondays and Tuesdays. At the visitor center, visitors will be oriented to the park, have the option to see a 17-minute film about Camp Nelson’s history, and take in the museum to learn about the different roles that Camp Nelson played during the Civil War.

The park is located six miles south of Nicholasville along Highway 27 and is just north of the Camp Nelson National Cemetery. Camp Nelson was established in 1863 by the U.S. military as a large supply depot. In 1864 it became one of the largest recruitment and training centers for African American men who became soldiers and also a large refugee center for formerly enslaved people seeking Emancipation.

During the visitor center’s closure, there have been renovations to the visitor reception area and restrooms. The park also now includes NPS personnel in addition to Jessamine County staff. The visitor center is now staffed with NPS rangers, interns, and volunteers. “We’ve been working for months to get to this moment and we’re very excited to welcome visitors back into the visitor center,” said Camp Nelson National Monument Superintendent Ernie Price.

Renovations are also underway on the Oliver Perry “White” House, the only original structure in the park that dates to the Civil War. Work has begun on the exterior of the home, but further repairs on the interior and exterior will keep the house closed for the foreseeable future.

There are several ways to follow the events at Camp Nelson National Monument including the website: www.nps.gov/cane or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/campnelsonnps. The Visitor Center can be reached at 859-881-5716, or of course, visitors can come by beginning June 16.

About Camp Nelson National Monument
A unit of the National Park Service, the park contains 380 acres and is located six miles south of Nicholasville, Kentucky, the park preserves the historic and archeological resources related to the 1863-1866 U.S. military supply depot that also served as a recruiting center for soldiers, and a refugee camp for more than 10,000 formerly enslaved people seeking Emancipation. The park includes the Fee Memorial Church located in the Hall community on the grounds of the refugee camp.