This Map of Kentucke, drawn from actual observations (John Filson, 1784)
John Filson’s first map of Kentucky: the Warrior’s Path from the Cumberland to the Ohio, Bird’s War Road up the Licking, the War Road from Big Bone Lick, the Wilderness Road, and the stations and licks of the settlement years.
Source
| Map | This map of Kentucke, drawn from actual observations, is inscribed with the most perfect respect, to the Honorable the Congress of the United States of America; and to His Excellcy. George Washington, late Commander in Chief of their Army |
|---|---|
| Author | John Filson, 1784 |
| Archive | Library of Congress |
| Rights | Public domain. Published 1784 — before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Evidence |
| Accuracy | About 33 km (RMS 4.2 km at 29 control points). Placed by hand in a map-queue session and approved by a person. If something sits in the wrong place, members can fix it with Fix placement on the map. |
| Method | Placed by hand: a smoothing thin-plate spline through 29 places read from the scan and matched to their positions today. See the methodology. |
| Version | 1.0.1, updated 2026-10-06 |
| Covers | Kentucky, Ohio |
Downloads
- Google Earth overlay (KMZ) — free (2.2 MB)
- GeoTIFF, tinted trails, EPSG:4326 (8000 × 4365; QGIS, ArcGIS) — free (8.3 MB)
- Print sheet over today’s map (3600 × 2200 PNG) — free (4 MB)
Project Homeland
This map’s trails are traced into Project Homeland, one map of the trail network melded from every traced source, where they are compared with the other maps’ lines. Members can trace more of them: Trace a trail on the map.
Changelog
- 1.0.1 (2026-10-06): Fix: the sheet’s edges, cut off before, restored (bounds from the warp itself); place names re-placed where the map draws them (they had been set by an approximation of the warp: median 9.8 km, up to 23 km off).
- 1.0.0 (2026-09-30): First release: placed by hand at 29 places. From the Native Routes sources register; Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.
Credits
- From the Native Routes sources register; Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
- Georeferencing: Native Routes
- Scan: Library of Congress
Control points
The full list of control points with residuals is in control-points.geojson. Historic names indexed for search: names.geojson.
Something on this map sits in the wrong place? Members can show where with Fix placement on the map — confirmed fixes are tested against the map’s other control points each night and credited here. For anything else, report a problem.
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