Lincoln Trail Alliance honors Host
with inaugural Better Angels Award

Former Lincoln Heritage Trail advocate Jim Host has been presented the inaugural Better Angels Award for Distinguished Contribution to Kentucky’s Lincoln heritage.

Warren Greer, director of the Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail Alliance, presented the award in November.

As a cabinet member in Gov. Louis Nunn’s administration, Host led the way in establishing a three-state partnership among Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky to create the first Lincoln Heritage Trail. The governors of all three states were directly involved, and each governor designated portions of their state as part of the overall trail. While successful for many years, this first Lincoln Heritage Trail faded into history as administrations changed and key participants moved on to other projects.

More than 30 years later, however, Host became a cabinet secretary in the administration of Gov. Ernie Fletcher, where he was instrumental in creating the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission as well as the new Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail. At the first meeting of the commission, Host made a heartfelt address to the members present, encouraging them to “dream big” in making plans for the bicentennial. His words were not lost on the commission, Greer noted, and his efforts to ensure that adequate funding was provided helped ensure that dreaming big would be possible.

“Not only was the Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail established, new exhibits were installed at nine sites on the trail, four major public art pieces were installed in Lincoln Trail communities, and the Joseph Holt Home was purchased for the Breckenridge County fiscal court,” Greer added.

“Host’s leadership and vision has created one of the most remarkable heritage tourism experiences anywhere in the world, and today the Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail is administered by its stakeholders, who make up the Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail Alliance,” he continued. “As we continue the work of sustaining our state’s Lincoln legacy, Host’s vision of dreaming big is a continued inspiration to our board members and their communities.

“Host is a long-time Lincoln admirer who used his appreciation for Lincoln, his enthusiasm for history, and his love of Kentucky to ensure that our state’s Lincoln legacy was not lost to history,” the trail director concluded.