A paved path leads to a gray wooden building with US Flag flying.
Camp Nelson National Monument Visitor Center and Museum NPS/A. Goetz

Camp Nelson National Monument

National Monument · Kentucky · National Park Service

The US Army established Camp Nelson as a fortified supply depot in April 1863. Over the next 3 years, the site evolved into a massive recruitment and training center for United States Colored Troops and a refugee camp for their families. It served as a shelter for civilians fleeing war and for enslaved people hoping to secure their freedom and aid in the destruction of slavery.

Plan your visit

Know before you go

Phone
(859) 881-5716
Official site
www.nps.gov
Managed by
National Park Service

Getting there

Directions on Google Maps →

What's here

Highlights: African American Heritage · Burial, Cemetery and Gravesite · National Cemetery · Enslavement · Forts · Military · Infantry and Militia · Artillery · Cavalry · US Army · Monuments and Memorials · Reconstruction · Social Movements · Abolition Movement · Civil Rights · Tragic Events · Forced Marches · Wars and Conflicts · Civil War · Women's History · Trails

Activities & features: Hiking · Front-Country Hiking · Junior Ranger Program · Park Film · Museum Exhibits

Photos

  • A stone obelisk in a grass field surrounded by luminary bags
    NPS/AG
  • NPS Directional Sign at Camp Nelson National Monument
    NPS/SP
  • Living historians portraying US soldiers in a grass field with a wagon.
    NPS/BT
  • Open fields of green grass with trees during a colorful sunrise.
    NPS/SP
  • A row of rough, wooden bunk beds in the soldiers' barrack house.
    NPS/ A. Goetz
  • A white, 2 story farm house with a Civil War cannon sitting in front of it
    NPS Photo
  • 2 cannons at an earthen fort
    NPS/SP
  • Living historians firing cannons in a grass field.
    NPS

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52 parks mapped in Kentucky

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Sources: National Park Service, Google Places · updated 2026-08-12