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| Prater’s Fort – Salyersville, Ky. |
Despite being one of America’s poorest counties, Magoffin County has not forgotten her rich history. The county’s historical society is incredibly active from its location in the old Salyersville post office on Church Street.
Adjacent to the historical society’s offices is a recreated pioneer village with fifteen authentic log buildings that have been collected from around the county and rebuilt at the site. Inside the structures, period furniture, post office cages, and other historic memoriabilia tell the tale of Magoffin County’s settlers.
The name Prater’s Fort is an early name for a settlement on the upper part of the Licking River – a site where Salyersville would eventually be incorporated. Logically, Prater’s Fort was, well, a fort established by Archibald Prater (1755-1831). Prater said of the area that “he looked unto these hills and found his hopes and dreams.”
A nearby pyramidal memorial to the “Early Founders of Magoffin County” celebrates Prater, as well as William “Uncle Billie” Adams (1802-1881) and state legislator Samuel Salyer (1812-1890). Adams was the namesake of Adamsville (the town that would become Salyersville); it is said that “he dreamed of a town that would never die.” Salyer served in the state legislature and worked to have Magoffin County created; it is for him that Salyersville was named when the county was formed in 1860.