In 2017, the Kentucky Chapter celebrated fifty years of protecting our Commonwealth’s natural beauty. Our story began with a plan from the Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam which would flood the Red River Gorge creating a manmade lake. The plan was initialized in 1962, and as early as 1966, a group of Powell County residents known as Save Our Red River had formed in opposition. Local members of the national Sierra Club and environmental lawyers joined with them in their protest of the dam, and that same year, a small group of dedicated volunteers petitioned the national organization to create a Kentucky group. In 1967, a famous “protest hike” occurred, with Sierra Club organizers inviting Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas to hike the Gorge in order to see what would be lost if the flood-control project moved forward and a reservoir was created. As fate would have it, a freeze on government spending for local projects due to the Vietnam War resulted in a delay in the start of the project in 1968. As a Sports Illustrated article on the proposed dam from April 1968 stated, “The river took 60 million years to carve the gorge out of the Cumberland Plateau, and it now has gained another scant year of life.” The scheduled start of construction was January 1969, but eventually the project was abandoned, and the hard work of Sierra Club members and local citizens to educate politicians and the public about the potential loss of this natural wonder continued through the 1970s and 1980s. In 1975, Kentucky Governor Julian Carroll stated that he saw no compelling reason to build the dam. Eventually, in 1993 the part of the Red River that runs through the gorge was designated as a National Wild and Scenic River, the only one in the state of Kentucky. Through this process, Sierra Club’s Kentucky Chapter (originally known as the Cumberland Chapter) laid a strong foundation of advocacy, activism, and community partnerships.
From its very origins, the Kentucky Chapter exemplified the grassroots, citizen-driven advocacy and activism that Sierra Club is known for around the world. Our history began with a victory that preserved one of our state’s greatest natural resources. Our story continued with numerous other successes: fighting pipelines, challenging factory farming, campaigning for mining reform and justice after the Martin County coal slurry spill of 2000, combatting the expansion of power plants, training citizen scientists as part of the Water Sentinels, and pushing for an end to mountaintop removal mining. These are just a few of the notable accomplishments of Kentucky Sierrans and their allies. Through the decades we’ve also held outings too numerous to count, educational meetings, annual gatherings and enjoyed communing with nature and with one another. We’ve created partnerships with other environmental organizations as well as with local community activists. Our love of this wild planet fuels our commitment to changing harmful environmental policies and preserving the wilderness for generations to come.
Kentucky Sierrans are steadfast in upholding the Sierra Club’s mission: To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth's ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives. We are committed to justice, and an end to systems of oppression. We invite you to join us to write the next chapters of climate justice in Kentucky together!
Learn about the Chapter's history to save the Red River Gorge here.
Listen to Charlie Baglan's audio on the history of the Douglas Hike with Sierra Club members