Just like the legendary mighty oak that once towered above it, Okolona has grown from a small farming burg nine miles south of Louisville into one of the county's largest communities.
The massive oak stood for many years near the corner of Preston Highway and Okolona Terrace. While the tree no longer stands the area has continued to grow and prosper.
Okolona was not the community's first name. Filson Club records show it listed in the early 1800s as the Cross Roads precinct, with a later change to Lone Oak. But when the post office was built around 1900, people discovered there already was a Lone Oak near Paducah. The name ultimately chosen is said to be either a creative rearranging of Lone Oak or an Indian name.
Nowadays, Okolona is generally considered to stretch from Fern Valley Road south to the Bullitt County line, with Interstate 65 marking the western edge and Fegenbush Lane, Beulah Church Road and Cedar Creek Road outlining its eastern fringe. These days, a drive along some of the main roads -- Preston Highway, Outer Loop, Fern Valley Road, Shepherdsville Road -- provide no inkling of what life was like in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Okolona was known as a farming area with some mining to produce charcoal for Louisville homes. It was infamous for its Wet Woods, a strip of swampy forest running south from around Fern Valley Road to Outer Loop and west from Preston Highway to near National Turnpike. The area, reportedly once inhabited by robbers and murderers, is now peppered with subdivisions, shopping centers, small industries and a landfill. Preston Highway was called a corduroy road because it was logs laid side by side over the swampy ground. There were hardly any buildings between Okolona and Camp Taylor. The Outer Loop was a two-lane road called Robbs Lane. But when General Electric opened its plant around 1953, changes started coming. That created the need for housing and schools. From then on, the booming economy spelled a population explosion, which brought improvements in schools, roads, sewers and recreation. Since then, Okolona has witnessed continued growth. With the widening of Outer Loop to four lanes came the influx of shopping complexes, beginning with Jefferson Mall in 1978. The long-awaited Gene Snyder Freeway was finished in 1987 and gave the community faster access to eastern Jefferson County.
Cache is a silver bison container, bring your own pencil.
This cache placed and maintained by a member of Geocky, InKy and the Heartland Geocachers
