Kentucky's Frontier Highway: Historical Landscapes along the Maysville Road

24. Blue Licks toward Maysville

239 24 Blue Licks toward Maysville Mile 22.1 The back road into Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park intersects on the left. The old Maysville Turnpike alignment, now renamed Redbud Road, departs from the modern road here and for about a mile and one-quarter loops east and north before rejoining U.S. 68. Most of the abandoned segments form short loops that now function as farm and residence driveways. About one-half mile ahead on Redbud Road, one may gain a spectacular view of the Licking River valley to the south, or right. A Kentucky Historical Society roadside marker here identifies the home and grave site of George M. Bedinger; born in Pennsylvania in 1756, he served as an officer in the Revolutionary War and at the siege of Yorktown in 1781. Bedinger helped defend Boonesborough in 1779, and he returned to Kentucky in 1784 as a surveyor. He was the first surveyor to operate in the Lower Blue Licks area. He served as a Kentucky legislator from 1792 to 1794 and as a member of the U.S. Congress from 1803 to 1807. At the top of the hill a nineteenth-century farmstead fronts the old road. One of the few extant Maysville Turnpike iron mile markers stands in the front yard, near the road. In the crux of the angle between U.S. 68 and Redbud Road is an expansive, nearly level area that seems out of place among the surrounding hills. This is a remnant of the ancient Licking River floodplain that lies more than one hundred feet above the existing river channel. The ancestral river deposited silt and gravel comprising chert, limestone, and quartz pebbles as channel deposits here. As the river eroded its channel downward, these deposits were left behind as extensive flats. Another area of old channel deposits lies along Redbud Road beyond the Bedinger historical marker, and expansive areas can be found near the Licking River up- and downstream from here.1 Mile 22.5 In 1928 State Highway Department engineers developed plans to rebuild this section of the old Maysville Road from the north boundary of Blue Licks State Park to the junction with SR 165 here on the left as part of a larger project to upgrade the road that linked Mt. Olivet, the Robertson County seat, to U.S. 68.2 The 1920s alignment very closely followed the old turnpike road in this section. Mile 22.8 The 1960s highway alignment intersects the Fleming County– Robertson County boundary at this point. The boundary follows an old buffalo trace in a broad loop about a mile and three-quarters to the west and north before transitioning into a straight survey line.3 TTI TTI B u ffal o T r a c e B u f f a l o Tr a c e B u f f a l o Trace Buffalo T r a c e FLEMING CO MASON CO M A S O N C O R O B E R T S O N C O RO BERTSO N CO FLEM IN G CO F L E M I N G C O N I C H O L A S C O ROBERTSON C O NICHOLAS CO L I C K I N G RIVER Elk C r eek Johnson Creek Johnso n Creek Ra g B r an c h F i v e L i c k C r e S t r a i g h t C r eek B aker C r eek P l u g t o w n B r a n c h Absalom I n d i a n R u n Stony Creek Buchanan Creek Creek Buchanan 68 68 32 165 165 Blue Licks–Mason County Road Corridor Blue Licks Spring Hildreth Ch Pleasant Ridge Ch Furman Chapel Mt Tabor Ch Fairview Alhambra Blue Licks Battlefield SRP miles 0 1 1 /4 1 /2 3 /4 Maysville Map area 68 O h i o R Blue Licks MASON CO FLEMING CO BL–MC Road corridor Orphaned road Light/Medium duty road Heavy duty road Spring Blue Licks toward Maysville  241 Mile 23.3 Redbud Road intersects again with the 1960s highway. Increased road-building funds from state gasoline taxes and large-scale earth-moving equipment available to road builders in the 1950s and 1960s allowed engineers to combine hill cuts with...