FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday announced the designation of the route from Camp Nelson to May’s Lick in honor of Brigadier General Charles Young.

Senate Joint Resolution 58 designates the route from Camp Nelson in Jessamine County to the Kentucky/Ohio border at May’s Lick as the Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Historical Corridor.

Young was the child of enslaved parents and the third African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1889. He went on to a distinguished military and public service career.

In February 2020, Beshear posthumously promoted Col. Charles Young to the honorary rank of brigadier general in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

In February 2022, following a years-long campaign, the U.S. Department of Defense approved a posthumous honorary promotion to the grade of brigadier general for Young.

The bill also directs that the corridor be denoted with signage and that the state work to promote the historical, military and cultural significance of the corridor and to work with their counterparts in Ohio to promote the corridor as a regional attraction.

Now the focus is on obtaining National Park Service status for the restored cabin in Mason County where Young spent his early years and a network of connecting sites that played a part in Young’s legacy. Those include the cabin, the John Parker Home in Ripley, Ohio, Camp Nelson National Monument in Nicholasville and the Charles Young National Monument in Wilberforce, Ohio. In order to reach that goal, the group is working to gather letters of support from every segment of the community — organizations, governments, and businesses.

Mason County officials are hoping to persuade the federal government to take ownership and operation of the cabin which the county now owns and operates.

The Young cabin was originally built in the 1790s and had nearly collapsed when Mason County, under the leadership of former Judge-Executive James L. “Buddy” Gallenstein, purchased the cabin and surrounding acreage in 2013 and began the process of restoring the structure. Others involved in the campaign to bring Young the recognition he deserves included Charles Blatcher, National Coalition of Black Veterans and Dan Sakura of Sakura Conservation Strategies.

Young was born to enslaved parents in 1864. He valued education throughout his life and graduated with honors from high school in Ohio, where his parents escaped slavery. He became only the third African-American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the first Black U.S. national park superintendent, first Black military attaché, first Black man to achieve the rank of colonel in the United States Army, and highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death in 1922.

Organizers hope to get the project off the ground in time for the 100th anniversary of Young’s burial in Arlington National Cemetery on June 1, 2023.