Kentucky Black Trailblazers Pushes Tourism Into a New Realm
Years ago, when Janette Marson discovered 19 Crimes wine bottles, she was intrigued. What caught her interest was the fact that the bottles integrated augmented reality onto the actual wine label — technology she had always wanted to use for the tourism industry.
Marson is president and CEO of ShelbyKY Tourism.
“The technology, of course, is hugely expensive and cost-prohibitive,” she says.
That is, until ARPA grants came along.
In the wake of COVID, Kentucky State Tourism received ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money to be used for projects that included at least six cities or counties and were transformational in nature, she says. “In order for a project to actually be ‘transformational,’ it would have to be different and deeply meaningful.”
That’s when the idea for Kentucky Black Trailblazers was born. Once Marson devised the initial concept for a Black history trail, she remembered the augmented reality technology of the wine bottles and wanted to integrate the two into a groundbreaking new concept for the tourism industry.
She says she reached out to “the company that actually created the technology behind the 19 Crimes wine bottles, as well as Pokémon GO, and they told me that such technology had come a long way. They asked if I would like to try something that had never been done before — of course I said, YES!”
The AR experience used in Kentucky Black Trailblazers was created by an innovation studio, Tactic. Peter Oberdorfer, CEO and CCO of Tactic, says tourism offices reached out to his firm stating they were interested in using AR for a series of activations at specific locations around the state of Kentucky. Tactic is an immersive creative and production studio based in San Francisco, California.
Tactic has worked on similar projects, as they specialize in augmented reality.
“We had worked with this sort of 3D performance capture before (called volumetric video) on projects, using these sorts of assets in our AR projects,” Oberdorfer say.
He says volumetric video is the equivalent of recording real actors performing reenactments of historical figures on a holographic stage consisting of 110 sensors and cameras surrounding the actor in a green sphere. The data is then processed into a moving 3D scan of the original performance that is streamed over the web.
The result was a first-of-its-kind immersive experience that tells the stories of influential Black Kentuckians using cutting-edge augmented reality. When laying the initial groundwork for the project, Marson approached six tourism partners in her region — ShelbyKY, Louisville, Oldham County, Bardstown, Elizabethtown and Shepherdsville-Bullitt County — and asked if they would like to partner with her on the project. The next step was to submit the project idea to Kentucky State Tourism.
“They approved and gave us the go-ahead,” Marson says.
It took approximately six months, including design, casting and production, to complete the project.
“It’s a way to bring history to life, with a fully dimensional 3D reenactment that is in the context of the sites in which the history occurred,” Oberdorfer says.
The goal was to honor and preserve the extraordinary contributions and stories of local heroes. The project includes 19 stops, three in each county, with a fourth added in Louisville. With just a tap of a phone to launch the experience, users can see and hear, via AR, stories of Muhammad Ali, Lyman T. Johnson, Mattie Owens, General Braddock, Dorsey Wickliffe and many more.
After learning about the potential of the Kentucky Black Trailblazers project from ShelbyKY Tourism, Kim Hydes, executive director of Oldham County Tourism and Conventions, “spoke with Shelby County Tourism about being included, and they were thrilled to have Oldham County participate as one of only six communities in this project. Oldham County’s three stops are Underground Railroad-related, which further promotes these designations by the National Park Service Network to Freedom, given to the Oldham County History Center.”
For Oldham County, the project was a “creative way to educate visitors and residents alike about the role African Americans played in Oldham County’s history and its importance. Visitors have come from all over the region to connect to stories that have been brought to life by the project. It has given visitors a reason to visit three separate cities in Oldham County, each with their own history, but a connection that makes us the same.”
Oldham County’s contributions include Henry Bibb, Eliza Brooks and Alex Beaumont. The markers for these pioneering individuals were placed in locations where the people actually lived or aided history. Eliza Brooks’ marker is located at Shiloh United Methodist Church in Goshen at what used to be the site of the plantation she escaped from. Henry Bibb’s marker is beside the original 1800s courthouse in Oldham’s river town of Westport, where enslaved people were auctioned in a building that is now a church. Alex Beaumont’s marker is located on the Oldham County History Center campus, where the National Park Service designations are held.
Shelbyville’s contributions are civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr., Elijah P. Marrs and the Harlem Hellfighters. These individuals were chosen when, “I got a group of Shelby County Black historians together and asked them what stories needed to be told,” Marson says.
Information for Oldham County’s three stops was provided by Nancy Theiss, executive director of the Oldham County History Center.
“Nancy has written numerous books and articles about Oldham County’s past and its connection to Black history and the Underground Railroad,” Hydes says. “Extensive research has been done for Alex Beaumont and Henry Bibb, but when the opportunity came to add a third stop, we went with the little-known story of Eliza Brooks, who escaped with her babies and a friend to Indiana by swimming the Ohio River completely unassisted. Eliza Brooks’ story is an emotional one.”
Choosing who to highlight and limiting it to only three individuals for each partner was difficult. The limitation was due in part to the cost of the project.
“At this time, there are no plans to create additional augmented reality experiences,” Marson says. “We have thought about expanding the project to include additional Black historical sites and people — minus the augmented reality feature.”
She says feedback has been incredible.
“This project has truly been transformational for people.,” she says. “There have been some people who did not realize that the Harlem Hellfighters were actually in their family, and it brought them to tears to find out that not only were they family, but they are finally being recognized for their incredible bravery.”
Hydes says she has had many visitors comment on “the lifelike feel of each trailblazer and how they feel as though the trailblazer was standing with them. ‘I have chills’ has been the most common reaction to all three.”
The project is significant for telling local history. Marson says that according to local Black historians, “most Black history was not written down. It was handed down generation to generation. So much of the history has been lost. This project has helped shed light on some very important figures in history whose stories needed to be told. Just the telling of the stories and shedding light on people who did incredible things during their lifetime has been very meaningful.”
Kentucky Black Trailblazers was recently added to the Kentucky African American Heritage Trail, a journey through courage, culture and contribution. With more than 50 remarkable sites across the state, the trail shines a light on the contributions of African Americans in Kentucky’s history.
In February 2025, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear visited Shelby County, where he joined tourism officials and local leaders to highlight the multicounty tourism initiative. He says the Kentucky Black Trailblazers experience “honors the profound contributions of Black Kentuckians throughout history by showcasing the diverse narratives that shape the commonwealth.”
Louisville Tourism President and CEO Cleo Battle says the project “is a powerful tribute to the influential Black figures that have shaped our state’s history. This immersive journey not only honors their legacies, but also educates and inspires both locals and visitors.”
“I think AR is the most natural progression with experience tourism,” Hydes adds. “The challenge for tourism offices is to create memories and emotional connections to our destinations. AR is the perfect, though expensive, way to accomplish visitor connection to your history. I think AR is an up-and-coming way to really experience history … by stepping into the past. It gives me chills thinking about it!”
For more information, visit kyblacktrailblazers.com.
The 19 KY Black Trailblazers Experiences:
ELIZABETHTOWN – HARDIN COUNTY:
