743 First Coal by Rail

Category: Markers

Marker reads, Robert Triplett built the first railway in Kentucky, 1826. Coal was moved from Bon Harbor hills to steamboats on the Ohio river. Triplett was the first to get coal substituted for wood as fuel on river boats below Louisville. Coal was shipped south, sold by barrel. Built cotton, woolen mills and laid out town of Bon Harbor, 1842, 1 2/1 miles N., which failed.