Owsley County seniors return home safely from Washington, D.C. trip

The Class of 2026 returned to Booneville with a senior trip that stretched far beyond a typical school outing. Owsley County High School students spent days moving through Washington, D.C., then finished with beach and pool time in the Outer Banks of North Carolina before heading back home safe and sound.

For seniors from Owsley County High School, the trip put them inside some of the nation’s most familiar landmarks. The group visited Ford’s Theatre on the 161st anniversary of the day Abraham Lincoln was shot there, then took in exhibits at the Smithsonian. They also toured the U.S. Capitol, viewed the original Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution at the National Archives, and walked through Arlington National Cemetery while watching the Changing of the Guard.

The itinerary turned into a rolling civics lesson as much as a celebration. Students saw the White House, the Washington Monument and several major memorials, including the Lincoln, Jefferson, Martin Luther King Jr., Korean War, Vietnam War, World War I and World War II memorials. At the Pentagon and the Air Force Memorial, the trip widened again, giving the class a look at the military history and public service traditions that shape the capital region.

At Arlington, the seniors also watched a wreath ceremony by an Honor Flight veterans group from Kansas, a moment that tied their trip to living memory as well as stone monuments. Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and the National Mall, with more than 1,000 acres of parkland and some of the country’s best-known memorials, offered lessons no classroom in Booneville can duplicate.

That is why a trip like this carries extra weight in Owsley County, where the high school sits in Booneville, Kentucky, in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and within Daniel Boone National Forest. For students who may not often get a chance to travel this far, the week offered a rare look at national history, government and military remembrance, then ended with a lighter coastal stop in North Carolina. By the time the bus rolled back into Booneville, the class had collected more than souvenirs. It had shared a last big memory before graduation, one families will remember and pass around long after senior year ends.