John Bizzack

The Lost Station: the History & the Mystery of the Burnt Station Lexington, Kentucky 1779-1781 John Bizzack

Publisher Marketing: For two centuries an aura of mystery has surrounded the long-lost legend of pioneer Kentucky's "Burnt Station" in eastern Fayette County. Pioneer texts preserved only enough information to paint a tantalizing portrait of an early frontier settlement founded on the banks of David Jones Creek, isolated amongst the timber and cane breaks of central Kentucky. Destined to become a primary crossroads between the pioneer settlements at Bryan's Station, Fort Lexington and Strode's Station, the settlement was from the beginning besieged by misfortune, famine and dangerous isolation. When hostile Indians burned the palisades protecting the fort in 1781, the fate of a community that had been founded with such potential was finally sealed. Fading into obscurity, Burnt Station lived on in the memories of those who had endured a harsh life there, but the passage of time dulled their recollections, leading historians and mapmakers astray for more than 170 years. Those lingering questions of why Burnt Station stood where it did and why its precise location was destined to be lost as an obscure oddity in American pioneer history have finally been answered. The Lost Station unravels the fascinating story of Burnt Station and the intrepid pioneer families focused on taming the wilds of central Kentucky and proves how easily important history can be lost when left to anecdotal interpretations.