How to Walk like an American Hero at Jenny Wiley Grave Site, State Resort Park, and Trail Plus Dewey Dam
Trying to find Jenny Wiley’s Grave Site was incredible hard. The signs pointed to the area but I ended up in a circle. But check here for a better guide. Plus look for the River Vol Fire Department for parking.
Grave Site
Once your parked then you have to walk a path to the grave site.
The Rive Community Development Association is along the trail to the Grave Site. You have to walk around it to get to the trail.
The trail is very pretty but it does go along a private property, please respect those residents!
Her grave is on the very top of the small hill and at the end of the path.
Her husband grave lays near her. He was a soldier in the Dunmore’s War and was a Revolutionary War Patriot.
Jenny Wiley State Resort Park
Jenny Wiley State Resort Park has a bit for everyone to do!
If you have a boat the lake is great to go on but if not the picnic areas have both the water to look at or the beautiful forest lands.
The lake view is just as great but even better with a boat. They also have a wonderful Dewey’s Lounge for after a day of fun with sample bourbon and appetizers. They have cabins, rooms, and campsites.
Jenny Wiley Trail
The Jenny Wiley Trail goes through the park which is 8.9 miles long. It goes up and through beautiful overlooks and can be accessed in several places both inside and outside the park.
Once you get up into the forest areas of the trail, you can hike the same area that Jenny Wiley walked to get home in her escape from the Native Americans that had held her captive for several months after taking her hostage.
I did not get to take the hike but would like to go back. I afraid that my ankle was still bugging me after I hurt it several months before.
Dewey Dam
The Dewey Dam was the item that I enjoyed most on my trip to Jenny’s park.
The inside was open with members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers giving tours. It was very cool to see all the different part. They give tours several times a year.
The Dam was named after Admiral George Dewey. Dewey Dam was created after several floods in the late 1930’s had a massive effect areas as far away as Louisville which is almost 200 miles away.
The dam was completed in 1949. The Dewey Lake would fill by 1950. Under the lake near the Dam is a town underwater. As they paid those who were living in the valley to move but they just filled in the water and leaving the town under the water.
Brief History
In October 1789, a group of eleven Native American attacked Jenny Wiley’s house killing her brother and her three of her children. They took her, who was pregnant at the time, plus her fifteen month child hostage but scaping her child when he became ill.
Jenny was help captive for several months near Little Mud Lick Creek. During her captive, she gave birth and the Natives killed that child as well. She escaped. She then walked back home. She and her husband would have six more children which lived and have children in the Kentucky area.
Jenny became a hero for living through the ordeal but Jenny was just a victim of a Chief losing his child when a group of settlers attacked his hunting group.
What made her so memorable was the account that she gave about her ordeal and the different letters and articles that where written about her.
White Squaw was what the Natives call Jenny during her captivity. This book is written at a level that even a young adult can read easy. It is a mostly true account of Jenny’s captivity with items added to ensure that the reader has the history plus dialog which is based off the accounts.
The book above was written 1910 which means that you can get it free online. It also include a lot of different items about other Kentucky persons at the Harman’s Station.
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