Founders Day at McConnell Springs

Families came to McConnell Springs Nature Park on Saturday to celebrate Founders Day, marking the city of Lexington’s birthday.

In 1775, William McConnell and other pioneers traveled into the wilderness of far-western Virginia and camped at a natural spring — the site now known as McConnell Springs — in what 17 years later would become the new state of Kentucky. The men named their settlement “Lexington” in honor of the news, just delivered, about the “shot heard ’round the world” by American Revolutionaries at the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts.

McConnell Springs is owned by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Founders Day at McConnell Springs."