George Washington's Kentucky Land
Curtis Dewees
This book centers on a ten to twelve mile stretch of an obscure Kentucky creek on the edge of the western frontier of America between 1782 and 1815 where George Washington owned 5,000 acres. Its name was Rough Creek, a small bubble in a boiling cauldron of land speculation. George Washington wrote or received at least seventy-five letters about the land he acquired on this creek, yet these 5,000 acres amounted to less than 10% of his total land holdings. Furthermore, Washington took time out from his busy job as president to give this small plot unusual attention. The "plot" involves double-dealing, double-crossing and raw emotions. It reads like an 18th century soap opera.