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early 100 years ago, citizens of Bell County in southeastern Kentucky wanted to establish something the naturally beautiful Bluegrass State lacked—a state park. Their goal was to attract tourists and, in turn, improve the local economy. 28 K E NT U C K Y M O NT HLY JUNE/ JULY 2022
Kentucky’s 1924 General Assembly, at the urging of then-Gov. William Fields, created a three-member Kentucky State Park Commission to look at available park sites in the state. Fields named Willard Rouse Jillson, a geology teacher at the University of Kentucky in his mid30s, to chair the commission. Jillson met with the people of Bell
County. The nearby Cumberland Gap area was first considered as a possible state park site, but its potential as a future national park led Jillson to look elsewhere, and in 1926, Kentucky’s first state park opened. Initially called Cumberland State Park, its name was changed in 1938 to Pine Mountain State Park to avoid confusion with the similarly named
