In the year 1836 the Kentucky General Assembly created the Board of Internal Improvement. Its purposes included the investment of public funds in private turnpike companies. As a result, the activity of private companies in building turnpikes was immediately heightened. The Legislature in the following three decades produced a veritable flood of turnpike charters. This process was continued until the Civil War began. Even during the most difficult years of the Civil War, travelers were required to stop every five miles or so to pay a toll for the privilege of going farther. Only when the Board was abolished in 1869 did local governments begin to fund the construction of roads in Kentucky.
By Owen Rouse
Source: Bray, D. H., Kentucky Parkway System, paper presented at Frankfort, KY (1969)
