After multiple successful printings of the Civil War Discovery driving tour, the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau wants to add an element of sound to the tour.

The CVB will work with Civil War re-enactor and Western Kentucky University professor Michael Trapasso to talk about interesting things along the trail for production of a CD, available at a nominal fee, or a free download from the Internet.

“I have been talking to Dr. Trapasso about trying to make it as interesting as possible,” said Katie Frassinelli, marketing director for the CVB. “So he is looking for diaries and letters and will be talking in the voice of people who lived through that time.”

The creation of the CD will be paid for with CVB funds and a Preserve America Grant obtained last year by the city of Bowling Green.

The original brochure was produced in 2005.

“It has been added to since then and printed two additional times - we ran out,” Frassinelli said. “With gas prices being high, people like free activities and this activity is free - unless you want to do the tours at some of the Civil War stops including Lost River Cave, the Kentucky Museum and Hobson House at Riverview.”

Frassinelli said the audio portion will add another layer to the tour, which has grown in popularity.

“People are just so interested in (the Civil War), particularly males,” said Jonathan Jeffrey, WKU library special collections professor, who had a minor part in developing the brochure. “For years, cultural tourism was a hook that was difficult to get into. A lot of cultural sites didn’t have a tie-in for tourism.”

Now the Discovery Trail in Warren County and elsewhere in the state can bring in a new audience.

“It’s a shame that we have lost some of the things we had,” Jeffrey said. “Fort Baker across the (Barren) river from the (College Street) bridge is basically gone.”

On what is now Reservoir Hill, you can still see some of the redoubts or strongholds for the fortification, he said.

“Fort Webb, except for the intrusion of trees, is pretty much like it was,” he said.

Fort Webb, which often is a target for Boy Scout and other community cleanups, is off Beech Bend Road near the Bowling Green Country Club.

“The (fort) site on top of the hill on campus has been altered a little,” Jeffrey said. “Basically at many of these sites you can see why a fortification was there. Basically they were on small rises or hills.

“Fort Webb is not on a hill, but you can see all the way down to the river,” he said. “They took down all the trees so they would be able to see a great distance.”

Bowling Green was important in the Civil War because of the availability of rail, river and road transportation.

“We never had a major battle here, but we could have,” Jeffrey said. “Confederates withdrew earlier than they were expecting. What happened at Shiloh very well could have happened here.”

Jeffrey said the Kentucky Library and Museum has frequent visitors interested in learning more about the area’s role in the Civil War or more specifically about their ancestry in the war.

The university recently purchased a Civil War collection, which contains military registries and records from other states on microfilm, and has a Civil War historian endowed professorship to direct the program.

Jeffrey said many people have found the information useful.

“In October, we are opening a Civil War exhibit related to Kentucky’s involvement in the Civil War,” he said. “It will be catered to those individuals interested in war and will have a lot of artifacts, materials on display and interpretative exhibits.

“All of these things are going to come together,” he said. “And it’s not long before we come upon the sesquicentennial of the war, so we will begin planning for that.”

— To download a printable version of the brochure, go to www.visitbgky.com/civilwardiscoverytrail.html. For more information about the entire trail outside Warren County, go to www.civilwardiscoverytrail.org/site_list.php.