Appalachian Community Histories – Raceland, Greenup County: Black Gold, the Million Dollar Oval, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Along U.S. Route 23 in Greenup County, Kentucky, the city of Raceland carries the name of a horse racing establishment that operated for only a few years but left a lasting impression on the surrounding community. During the 1920s, its Million Dollar Oval attracted thousands of spectators, nationally recognized jockeys, and some of the most celebrated Thoroughbreds in American racing. Among them was Black Gold, the winner of the 1924 Kentucky Derby, whose appearance at Raceland helped draw a reported 27,000 spectators to the inaugural Raceland Derby.
Yet the history of Raceland extends well beyond its famous racetrack. Before the arrival of Thoroughbred racing, the community had been known by several names, including Pond Run, Chinns Crossing, and Chinnville. Its development was shaped by early settlement, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and its position within the industrial Ohio River Valley. When the racetrack’s fortunes declined, a railroad car shop opened nearby in 1929, beginning another chapter that would influence local employment and family life for generations.
The story of Raceland is consequently one of remarkable changes in a relatively small Appalachian community. Its residents witnessed the transformation of farmland into a nationally recognized sporting destination, the disappearance of that destination during the years surrounding the Great Depression, and the growth of a railroad industry that eventually employed more than a thousand workers.
Before Raceland: The Early Settlement of Pond Run
Long before Raceland acquired its present name, the surrounding Ohio River Valley was part of the homeland and hunting territory of Indigenous peoples, including the Shawnee. The river and its tributaries provided routes for travel, trade, and communication, while the surrounding forests and bottomlands offered important natural resources. A local historical marker in Raceland preserves the community’s association with Shawnee hunting grounds, although the history of Indigenous occupation in the region extends considerably further into the past.
Local historical tradition identifies Joseph Powell, his family, and his brother Stephen as among the first settlers of the immediate Raceland area in 1799. Their arrival is commemorated by a historical marker on Greenup Avenue near McCoy Street, although the precise details of the earliest settlement would require further examination of land grants, tax records, and surviving deeds. As additional families established farms and homes in the surrounding countryside, a small settlement developed along the watercourse known as Pond Run.
The name Pond Run appeared in official postal history during the middle of the nineteenth century. According to the Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer, a Pond Run post office operated from 1848 until 1851, providing evidence that the community had developed sufficiently to require a recognized postal location long before its incorporation as a municipality.
During the following decades, the settlement became associated with the Chinn family and acquired the name Chinns Crossing. Eventually, Chinnville became the more familiar designation. The family’s association with the community survived not only in historical accounts but also in local street names, including Chinn Street, which continues to preserve part of the settlement’s earlier identity.
The broader Greenup County economy was changing during these years. Iron furnaces, timber operations, agriculture, and river transportation created opportunities throughout the Ohio Valley. Several miles west of present-day Raceland, Caroline Furnace began operating in 1833 and remained part of the region’s iron industry until 1890. Its history illustrates the industrial development already underway in northeastern Kentucky before Raceland became known for either horse racing or railroad car manufacturing.
The Railroad Arrives and Chinnville Becomes a Town
The arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway helped reshape the small community during the late nineteenth century. A local historical marker dates the first railroad through Raceland to 1888, while historical place-name records identify Raceland Junction as a name associated with the railroad station. The railway connected the settlement more closely with the expanding industrial communities of Ashland, Russell, and the surrounding Ohio Valley.
Rail transportation was particularly important to northeastern Kentucky because of the growing movement of coal from the Appalachian interior toward industrial markets. The Chesapeake and Ohio system connected the coal-producing regions of Kentucky and West Virginia with manufacturing centers and transportation networks farther north and east. Communities along its route benefited from new opportunities for freight handling, maintenance, commerce, and railroad employment.
Chinnville gradually developed the institutions associated with a permanent town. Its post office opened in 1910, and a local historical marker identifies Mollie Shrope as its first postmaster. Five years later, in 1915, Chinnville became an incorporated municipality, establishing a formal local government at a time when surrounding communities were also experiencing industrial and residential growth.
Despite these developments, Chinnville remained a comparatively small community. Its transformation into a place recognized throughout the Thoroughbred racing industry would begin with the ambitions of a horseman who believed that the Ohio Valley could support one of Kentucky’s most impressive racing establishments.
Jack O. Keene and the Creation of the Million Dollar Oval
In 1922, horse racing promoter John Oliver Keene, commonly known as Jack Keene, began developing plans for a major racetrack near Chinnville. Rather than constructing a modest county racing ground, Keene envisioned an establishment that could attract prominent Thoroughbreds, wealthy owners, experienced jockeys, and large crowds from Kentucky and neighboring states.
Keene initially purchased several tracts of land near the community. The Tri-State Fair and Racing Association was subsequently organized to develop the property, eventually assembling approximately 350 acres for the proposed racing complex. Keene became the association’s general manager and supervised the development of the grounds. A surviving 1923 stock certificate, signed by association president Charley Berryman and secretary Thomas B. Cromwell, provides an original financial artifact from the venture.
The project soon became known as the Million Dollar Oval, a name intended to reflect the scale and sophistication of the establishment. The racing course measured approximately one and a half miles, while the surrounding grounds were designed to accommodate the many facilities required by a major Thoroughbred racing operation.
Descriptions published in The Thoroughbred Record during January 1923 outlined an ambitious landscape that included gardens, a lake, flower beds, and decorative plantings. The proposed grandstand was designed to seat approximately 4,000 spectators and was expected to cost $110,000, a substantial investment at the time. Plans also included housing for trainers and employees, extensive stabling facilities, and other buildings necessary for the operation of the course.
The completed establishment was impressive enough to be remembered in considerable detail. According to Kentucky Historical Society marker 2143, the complex contained 22 stables, a dedicated railroad spur, and even its own jail. Its transportation connections allowed horses and spectators to arrive by rail, while automobiles and buses brought additional visitors from nearby communities.
For a small Greenup County town, the construction of the racing complex represented an extraordinary undertaking. The surrounding community now stood beside an establishment that its promoters hoped would compete for attention with Kentucky’s better-known racing destinations.
The Opening of Raceland and the Derby of 1924
Raceland opened its first regular Thoroughbred racing season on July 10, 1924. The inaugural program featured the Ashland Handicap and reportedly attracted approximately 15,000 spectators, demonstrating the considerable public interest that Keene and his associates had generated before the first races were run.
The initial season was scheduled for 21 days, extending into early August. Its principal attraction, however, was the inaugural Raceland Derby on July 19, an event that brought national attention to the new establishment.
The most celebrated entrant was Black Gold, the winner of the fiftieth Kentucky Derby earlier that spring. Owned by Rosa M. Hoots, Black Gold had also captured several other important races during his remarkable three-year-old campaign and arrived at Raceland with an impressive national reputation. His entry attracted considerable interest from spectators who hoped to see the Kentucky Derby winner add another victory to his achievements.
The race also featured several other horses that had competed in the Kentucky Derby, including Bob Tail and Altawood. Their appearance created a field with established credentials, giving Raceland an opportunity to demonstrate that its new course could attract competitors already familiar to racing enthusiasts.
On July 19, approximately 27,000 spectators attended the inaugural Raceland Derby. The crowd far exceeded the grandstand’s planned seating capacity, filling the racing grounds with visitors from across the surrounding region.
Black Gold entered the event as a favorite, but the celebrated Derby winner did not secure the victory many spectators had anticipated. Bob Tail, representing Edward R. Bradley’s Idle Hour Stock Farm, won the mile-and-a-quarter race, while Altawood finished second and Black Gold crossed the finish line in third place.
The result was reported in newspapers across the country. On July 20, 1924, The Omaha Morning Bee published a contemporary account of Bob Tail’s victory, confirming the finishing order and demonstrating how rapidly the results from a newly constructed racetrack in eastern Kentucky reached a national audience.
The race’s significance extended beyond the unexpected result. The attendance, the quality of the competing horses, and the extensive newspaper coverage established Raceland as a serious participant in Kentucky’s Thoroughbred racing industry. What had recently been farmland outside Chinnville had become the setting for one of the most memorable racing events in the community’s history.
Five Seasons of Thoroughbred Racing
Although the inaugural Raceland Derby became the establishment’s most famous event, the racing complex continued operating throughout the middle and later years of the 1920s. The Tri-State Fair and Racing Association organized additional summer meetings, drawing horses, jockeys, trainers, and spectators to Greenup County.
Contemporary issues of the Daily Racing Form provide particularly valuable evidence of these activities. Its September 12, 1924, issue contains original racing charts from the Raceland Fair Association’s September meeting, identifying participating horses, jockeys, officials, track conditions, and race results. These records demonstrate that racing activity extended beyond the original July and August program.
Further meetings followed in 1925, 1926, 1927, and 1928, with the Raceland Derby continuing as an important attraction. Later historical accounts identify annual racing seasons of varying lengths, including a 27-day meeting in 1925, a 25-day meeting in 1926, and shorter programs during the final years.
The surviving racing newspapers also document Raceland’s connections with other established tracks. In June 1927, for example, the Daily Racing Form reported preparations for the upcoming meeting and the reservation of stabling facilities, evidence that owners and trainers continued bringing horses to the eastern Kentucky course. Its June 1928 coverage likewise included announcements concerning the closing of entries for Raceland stakes races.
Nevertheless, the impressive racing grounds and successful individual events did not guarantee financial stability. Maintaining an extensive racing complex required substantial expenditures, and the association eventually encountered financial difficulties that threatened the future of the establishment.
From Chinnville to Raceland
The racetrack had an effect on the surrounding community that proved considerably more permanent than its racing seasons. Its popularity encouraged residents and local officials to adopt the name Raceland for the municipality itself, replacing the older designation of Chinnville.
The history of this change is somewhat more complicated than many abbreviated local accounts suggest. The Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer records that the Chinnville post office was renamed Raceland in 1925, reverted to Chinnville around 1927, and received the Raceland name again in 1930. Local historical markers also identify 1925 as an important year in the town’s adoption of the new name.
An original Kentucky Court of Appeals decision provides particularly important evidence concerning the formal municipal change. In City of Raceland v. McCoy, decided on May 4, 1934, the court explained that Chapter 109 of Kentucky’s Acts of 1930 had elevated Chinnville from a sixth-class town to a fifth-class city and changed its legal name to Raceland.
The distinction helps reconcile the apparently conflicting dates preserved in local accounts. The racetrack’s name had already become associated with the community during the middle of the 1920s, but the statutory municipal change occurred in 1930.
By then, the establishment responsible for the town’s new identity was already struggling to survive.
The Decline and Closing of the Racetrack
Despite the large crowds that attended important races, Raceland failed to establish a financially sustainable operation. The association’s difficulties eventually resulted in foreclosure proceedings, bringing the original racing venture to an end.
A historical account accompanying the surviving Tri-State Fair and Racing Association stock certificate identifies October 27, 1928, as the date of the foreclosure order. It records the subsequent sale of the property in November to S&S Lyric Inc. of New York to satisfy a $200,000 mortgage. The Kentucky Historical Society likewise identifies 1928 as Raceland’s final regular racing season.
There were, however, attempts to revive the establishment. A new organization, Raceland Incorporated, reportedly leased the property for a fair scheduled for July 1 through July 6, 1929. The June 11, 1929, issue of the Daily Racing Form included an announcement titled Raceland Begins July 1, confirming that promoters were still publicizing activity at the course after the original association’s financial collapse.
This distinction is important when examining the often-repeated closing dates. Although some community histories associate the racetrack’s closing with 1929, the Kentucky Historical Society identifies 1928 as the final regular Thoroughbred racing season. The later announcements and fair arrangements demonstrate that efforts to continue using the property did not end immediately with the foreclosure.
The attempts to restore the establishment’s original prominence ultimately proved unsuccessful. The grounds continued to serve occasional community purposes, including holiday celebrations, but their future as a major racing destination had effectively disappeared. In 1937, the property was sold, and demolition of the extensive racing facilities followed, gradually erasing much of the physical landscape that had once attracted thousands of visitors.
Although the grandstand and most of the surrounding complex eventually disappeared, the name Raceland remained. A venture that had operated for only a handful of regular racing seasons had permanently changed the identity of the community beside it.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Builds the Raceland Car Shop
As the racing establishment declined, another major development was already taking shape across the road. During the 1920s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway had been expanding its freight-handling operations in the Russell area, creating a major railroad complex associated with the transportation of Appalachian coal.
The railway needed facilities capable of maintaining and repairing large numbers of freight cars, particularly those carrying coal from the surrounding region. Rather than continuing to distribute heavy repair work among numerous existing shops, company officials decided to establish a more centralized facility using production methods that resembled those employed in automobile manufacturing.
The resulting project was located across from the former racing grounds. Originally called the Russell Car Shop and later known as the Raceland Car Shop, the establishment occupied approximately 84 acres and was designed around extensive railroad maintenance and manufacturing operations.
A company brochure distributed during the Chessie System’s 1970 Family Day provides an unusually detailed account of the facility’s early history. According to that original company publication, construction began in early 1929, and the shop entered operation in October of the same year. Its equipment included 14 overhead traveling cranes, welding and painting facilities, a wheel shop, storage buildings, steam boilers, and machinery intended to support large-scale freight car repairs.
The timing was remarkable. Within approximately one year of the final regular racing season, the surrounding area had gained a major industrial establishment that would provide a different kind of economic opportunity for generations of local residents.
Where spectators had once arrived to watch Thoroughbreds compete, railroad workers now reported to a facility responsible for maintaining and manufacturing the equipment that moved coal and other freight across the eastern United States.
Industrial Growth and Generations of Railroad Employment
The Raceland Car Shop developed into an important industrial employer during the decades following its opening. Its original operations centered primarily on freight car repairs, but the facility gradually expanded its manufacturing capabilities as railway requirements changed.
Following the Second World War, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway began increasing the production of replacement parts and new freight cars at Raceland. Fabricating equipment was installed in 1947, and a new fabrication plant entered operation in 1948, reducing the company’s dependence on outside manufacturers for some of the components required in its repair programs.
Additional improvements followed during the 1950s and 1960s. A reclamation plant began operating in 1955, allowing workers to restore and reuse valuable freight car components. New positioning equipment installed in 1957 made it possible to rotate railroad cars for more effective welding, while later modernization projects expanded the facility’s production capacity.
By 1968, employment at the Raceland Car Shop had reached approximately 1,430 workers, according to the company’s 1970 account. The following year, its reported daily production included 16 new 100-ton hopper cars and six new 100-ton gondolas. Between 1936 and 1970, the company recorded approximately 218,576 cars leaving the facility following production or repair work, while the total number of newly constructed cars exceeded 27,000 by 1970.
These figures reveal the extraordinary difference between the town’s brief racing era and its prolonged industrial development. The Million Dollar Oval brought national attention and considerable excitement to Raceland, but the railroad shops provided employment and industrial activity on a much larger and more sustained scale.
For workers and their families, the shop became an important part of everyday life. Its employment extended across generations, while its operations connected Raceland to the coalfields, steel industries, railroad yards, and manufacturing centers of the broader Appalachian and Ohio Valley economies.
Streets, Waterworks, and the Development of a Modern City
Raceland’s industrial expansion was accompanied by the challenges of municipal development. As the town acquired a larger population and additional businesses, its government faced increasing demands for improved streets, bridges, water service, and other public infrastructure.
These projects were not always free of controversy. One particularly revealing historical record is the 1934 Kentucky Court of Appeals decision in City of Raceland v. McCoy, which involved disagreements over assessments imposed on property owners for street improvements undertaken when the community was still legally known as Chinnville.
The dispute concerned the cost of paving and construction work, including bridges, excavation, curbing, and other improvements. Property owners challenged certain charges and sought corrections to the assessments, while the city and contractor defended the procedures used to finance and complete the project. The court ultimately approved corrections to portions of the assessments while reversing other adjustments.
Although the litigation dealt with relatively technical questions of municipal finance and construction, it provides an important picture of a growing community attempting to modernize its infrastructure. Streets that had served a smaller settlement were being improved for a town experiencing substantial economic and transportation changes.
A separate legal dispute concerned Raceland’s waterworks system. In April 1931, the city council adopted an ordinance authorizing $40,000 in bonds to finance the proposed construction of a municipal waterworks plant. The arrangement was challenged in court, producing the 1932 decision in Williams v. City of Raceland. The surviving opinion documents the municipality’s efforts to establish a water system while navigating the financial restrictions and legal requirements imposed on Kentucky cities.
Together, these original court records offer a perspective that is frequently missing from histories centered on celebrated events. Raceland’s development depended not only on racetrack promoters and railroad executives but also on the ordinary work of establishing the streets, utilities, and institutions required by a permanent community.
Remembering the People Behind Raceland’s History
The community’s surviving historical markers also preserve stories of residents whose lives extended beyond the racetrack and railroad shops. One of these commemorates Dave Rollins, remembered locally as Uncle Dave, whose experience connects the area with the history of slavery, emancipation, and Black military service during the Civil War.
A marker installed by the Boyd and Greenup County branch of the NAACP remembers Rollins as a formerly enslaved man born near Greenup who subsequently served in the Union Army. According to the account preserved on the marker, he later received a military pension and land from the family that had formerly enslaved him, allowing him to establish a home in the Raceland area.
Some details of Rollins’s life remain uncertain. The memorial’s reported age and death date differ from the burial information associated with him, and his specific military service would benefit from further examination of original enlistment, pension, and discharge records. Nevertheless, the marker preserves an important part of the community’s historical memory and recognizes a resident whose experiences reflected the profound social changes of the nineteenth century.
His commemoration is a reminder that Raceland’s history cannot be understood solely through its best-known industrial and recreational landmarks. The town was also shaped by the experiences of families, veterans, workers, and residents whose contributions were not always recorded in the newspapers that celebrated its most famous events.
The Later Years of the Railroad Shops
Although the Raceland Car Shop remained an important employer throughout much of the twentieth century, changes in railroad operations and freight car ownership eventually reduced the demand for its traditional services.
By the 1990s, the facility was experiencing alternating periods of production and furloughs as the railroad adjusted its workforce to changing demand. The CSXT Historical Society records a major furlough in August 1991, followed by the reopening of the car-building line in 1992. Further reductions and temporary recalls occurred throughout the following decade, reflecting the instability of an industry increasingly affected by changes in coal transportation and equipment procurement.
In July 2006, CSX sold the Raceland Car Shop to Progress Rail Services, which continued using the property for maintenance and repair operations. Although the sale preserved some industrial activity, employment continued to fluctuate as demand for railroad car rebuilding declined.
The facility’s long history reached another turning point in January 2019, when Progress Rail announced its immediate closing because of insufficient work and the need for additional investment in the aging complex. The closure ended approximately 90 years of industrial activity at the establishment that had opened beside Raceland’s declining racetrack in October 1929.
The disappearance of the shop’s traditional operations marked another important transition for a community whose twentieth-century development had been closely tied to railroad manufacturing and the broader Appalachian coal economy.
The Raceland Racetrack’s Final Surviving Landmarks
Long after the destruction of the original racing oval, portions of its former grounds and a small number of historic structures continued to preserve the memory of Raceland’s sporting history. The Kentucky Historical Society formally recognized the establishment in 2004 with historical marker 2143, commemorating the Million Dollar Oval and the racing seasons that had brought national attention to Greenup County.
In 2024, Raceland celebrated the centennial of the original racetrack, allowing residents to revisit a period when the community had hosted some of the country’s most famous Thoroughbreds. One of the most recognizable surviving connections to that era was the former clubhouse, locally known as the jockey house, which had stood near U.S. Route 23 since the original racing development.
Unfortunately, that structure was destroyed by fire during the early morning hours of January 2, 2025. Local television station WSAZ reported that firefighters arrived to find the historic building engulfed in flames. No injuries were reported, but the fire destroyed one of the last remaining physical reminders of the original racing establishment.
The loss was particularly significant because the community had celebrated the racetrack’s hundredth anniversary only the previous year. For generations of residents, the old clubhouse had served as a familiar landmark, preserving a visible connection to an establishment that had disappeared from the local economy nearly a century earlier.
Although the original grandstand, oval, and clubhouse are now gone, surviving newspaper accounts, photographs, racing records, historical markers, and company documents continue to make the history of the Million Dollar Oval accessible to researchers and residents.
Raceland’s Place in Appalachian History
The history of Raceland illustrates how a small Appalachian community could be transformed by economic developments that extended far beyond its municipal boundaries. Its earliest settlement reflected the movement of families into the Ohio River Valley, while the arrival of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway connected the town to the expanding industrial economy of northeastern Kentucky.
The construction of the Million Dollar Oval briefly placed Raceland in the national spotlight. The inaugural Derby of 1924 attracted enormous public attention, brought celebrated Thoroughbreds to Greenup County, and created a name that residents ultimately adopted for their community. Yet the racing establishment’s financial failure and eventual demolition revealed how quickly even an ambitious development could disappear when its economic foundations proved unsustainable.
The railroad shops that opened beside the former racing grounds in 1929 provided a different legacy. For much of the following century, the Raceland Car Shop linked local employment to the transportation and manufacturing industries that supported the broader Appalachian economy, becoming part of the working lives of generations of families.
Today, Raceland’s history survives through more than the memory of its famous racetrack. Its earlier names, railroad heritage, municipal records, historic photographs, and commemorations of local residents preserve the experiences of a community that repeatedly adapted to economic and social change.
The Million Dollar Oval may have lasted only a few years, but the community that took its name endured, carrying the memory of the horses, railroad workers, families, and industries that shaped its place in Greenup County.
Sources & Further Reading
The Omaha Morning Bee. “Bobtail Wins Raceland Derby.” July 20, 1924, 1-B. https://nebnewspapers.unl.edu/lccn/sn84024326/1924-07-20/ed-1/seq-11/ocr/.
Daily Racing Form. “Raceland Fair.” September 12, 1924. University of Kentucky Libraries, Daily Racing Form Historical Online Archive. https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1924091201/drf1924091201_11_2.
Daily Racing Form. “Racing Dates for 1927.” June 20, 1927. University of Kentucky Libraries, Daily Racing Form Historical Online Archive. https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1927062001/drf1927062001_14_2.
Daily Racing Form. June 11, 1929. Includes “Raceland Begins July 1.” University of Kentucky Libraries, Daily Racing Form Historical Online Archive. https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1929061101/drf1929061101_1.
Kentucky Court of Appeals. Williams v. City of Raceland, 245 Ky. 212, 53 S.W.2d 370 (1932). https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/1932/245-ky-212.html.
Kentucky Court of Appeals. City of Raceland v. McCoy, 254 Ky. 827, 72 S.W.2d 454 (1934). https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/city-of-raceland-v-902347481.
Kentucky Court of Appeals. McCoy v. Town of Chinnville, 269 Ky. 189, 106 S.W.2d 628 (1937). https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/1937/269-ky-189.html.
Tri-State Fair and Racing Association. Stock certificate, 1923. Reproduced by Scripophily.com, R. M. Smythe. https://scripophily.net/tri-state-fair-and-racing-association-1923-delaware/.
Chessie System. Russell Car Shop Family Day Brochure. 1970. Reproduced in Journal of the CSXT Historical Society 7, no. 4 (June 2019). https://www.csxthsociety.org/journal/v07-2018/v07n4/csxtjournalv07n4-20190601-racelandcarshop-footerr.pdf.
Kentucky Historical Society. “Race Track, 1924–1928.” Kentucky Historical Marker 2143. Dedicated May 26, 2004. https://history.ky.gov/markers/race-track-1924-1928.
City of Raceland. “About Raceland.” Accessed September 26, 2026. https://www.racelandky.gov/about.
Epling, Ryan. “Fire Destroys Historic Club House at Old Horse Race Track Site.” WSAZ, January 2, 2025. https://www.wsaz.com/2025/01/02/fire-historic-horse-race-track-site/.
United States Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920: Population Schedules for Greenup County, Kentucky. Record Group 29, Microfilm Publication T625. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/online-resources.
United States Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930: Population Schedules for Greenup County, Kentucky. Record Group 29, Microfilm Publication T626. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1930.
United States Geological Survey. Historical Topographic Map Collection. Maps of northeastern Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1884–2006. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past.
Biggs, Nina Mitchell. History of Greenup County, Kentucky. 1951. Reprint, Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 2025. https://southernhistoricalpress.com/product/a-supplementary-edition-of-a-history-of-greenup-county-kentucky/.
Rennick, Robert M. Kentucky Place Names. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984. https://books.google.com/books/about/Kentucky_place_names.html?id=ivUTAAAAYAAJ.
Collier, Natasha. “Spotlight: Raceland.” Lexington History Museum, June 21, 2009. https://lexingtonhistory.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/spotlight-raceland/.
Kentucky Educational Television. “Julia Perry; Morehead Space Science; Raceland; and More.” Kentucky Life, season 27, episode 7. June 4, 2022. https://www.pbs.org/video/julia-perry-morehead-space-science-raceland-and-more-cadfi1/.
Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer. “Raceland, Kentucky.” Accessed September 26, 2026. https://www.kyatlas.com/ky-raceland.html.
Historical Marker Database. “The First Settlers Here.” Raceland, Greenup County, Kentucky. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=310670.
Historical Marker Database. “The Town Was First Known as Pond Run.” Raceland, Greenup County, Kentucky. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=310398.
Boyd and Greenup County Branch of the NAACP. “Uncle Dave Rollins.” Historical marker, Raceland, Kentucky. Transcription and photographs in the Historical Marker Database. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=310400.
Historical Marker Database. “Jockeys Who Rode at Raceland.” Raceland, Greenup County, Kentucky. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=310399.
Greenup County Public Library. “Genealogy and Local History.” Accessed September 26, 2026. https://www.greenuplib.org/genealogy.
Kentucky Heritage Council. “Kentucky Historic Resources Survey.” Accessed September 26, 2026. https://heritage.ky.gov/historic-places/resources-survey/Pages/overview.aspx.
Kentucky Historical Society. Digital Collections. Accessed September 26, 2026. https://kyhistory.com/digital/.
University of Kentucky Libraries. Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program. Accessed September 26, 2026. https://kentuckynewspapers.org/program/.
Keeneland Library. “All Collections.” Accessed September 26, 2026. https://www.keeneland.com/keeneland-library/all-collections.
Author Note: Raceland’s history reveals how a small Greenup County community became home to one of Kentucky’s most ambitious racetracks before railroad manufacturing transformed its economy. I hope this article helps preserve the stories of the families, workers, and landmarks that shaped the town long after the Million Dollar Oval disappeared.