Kentucky’s Toll-Gate Wars: A Fight for Free Roads

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Kentuckians took to the roads—not just to travel, but to protest. In this episode, we explore the dramatic and often violent events of the Toll-Gate Wars, a grassroots movement against private toll road companies that charged travelers fees to use public routes.

Citizens across rural Kentucky, frustrated by the burden of tolls on everyday life, formed “Toll-Gate Raiders”—masked vigilantes who tore down gates in the dead of night. These uprisings highlighted deep tensions over infrastructure, access, and fairness, eventually forcing the state to intervene and bring many roads under public control.

Join us as we uncover this overlooked chapter of Kentucky history, where ordinary people stood up for the freedom to move—and changed the future of transportation in the Bluegrass State.