The Big Sink

The Big Sink. National Register Rural Historic District. ...an unusual name... for a remarkable place , The Big Sink Rural Historic District, the largest along Old Frankfort Pike and in the Lexington-Frankfort Scenic Corridor, echoes almost all of the themes and eras depicted in the area's other Districts, then adds more exceptional and unique resources, stories, and landscapes to the mix. The name - Big Sink - comes from the articulated Karst geology beneath this iconic Bluegrass landscape. , In 1774, England claimed this wilderness as part of Virginia Colony. , Three surveyors, Hancock Taylor, John Floyd and James Duncan spent that summer marking off 1,000 to 5,000 acre military land grants in this precise locale. Their surveys were among the very first land claims west of the Appalachians. Did they grasp the unusual fertility of the Big Sink area? Was it chance that they chose some of the most productive soil in the region - even by Bluegrass standards? For since settlement, this distinct area has produced fine livestock and superlative horses that thrive on the mineral rich grasses and spring waters. Big Sink land ranks among the finest agricultural land in America. , The illustration above outlines where the Big Sink geology took shape over 250 million years ago. In 1944, geologist Willard Rouse Jillson searched and mapped the geology and physiography of the area, knowing the subterranean piracy (underground streams and caves) stretched over 10 miles from near Versailles northwest to the Roaring Spring on Elkhorn Creek, He documented the rare accumulation of surface faults, caves, and springs; and traced the network by sending massive amounts of grain, dye, and even ducks into caves and passages in search of the route on the map. Little evidence of this remarkable system is visible from the roadways, other than the rolling swells of the land. But those who maintain land here understand that the articulated geology is the invisible reason for the unusual fertility of the Big Sink. , Views in the Big Sink Rural Historic District: Pasture and Aiken Road. Spring Station at Woodlake Road. Woodburn Farm. (CA) , Total Acreage: 4,644 , Historic Farms and sites 26 , Years of Historic Significance: 1775-1943 , Important Historic Themes: Agriculture, Architecture, Commerce, Community Development, Conservation, Education, Religion, African-American Heritage, Exploration and Settlement, Landscape Architecture, Social History, Transportation, Manufacturing, Geological Phenomena . This historical marker is in Lexington in Fayette County Kentucky