Sanders Cafe, the Original KFC, Corbin, Kentucky

Colonel Harlan Sanders was my kind of man. His resume included: farm hand, streetcar conductor, soldier, and railyard fireman. He studied law by correspondance and practiced in Justice of the Peace courts, operated an Ohio River steamboat ferry, and sold tires.
In 1930, in the midst of the Great Depression, Harland Sanders opened his first restaurant in the small front room of a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. It was in the location pictured here and was called "Sanders Court and Cafe. Harlan Sanders himself served as station operator, chief cook and cashier.

In 1952, the Colonel began traveling from town to town, cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners, and thereby actively franchising his chicken business. With a handshake and an agreement for a payment of a nickle for each chicken sold, the Colonel awwarded the first KFC franchise to Pete Harman of Salt Lake City, Utah. Interestingly, I spent a couple of weeks in Salt Lake City in the summer of 1965, when I was 20. There I remember eating my first Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was not a KFC restaurant as known today, but merely a specially promoted menu item in Harman's Cafe. I thought it was some of the best chicken I had ever eaten, and it is still a favorite of mine.

At the age of 65, on the same day the Colonel received his first social security check for $105, he sold his restaurant. Sanders then decided to go on the road and sell his "secret receipe" to restaurants with a vengence.

You know the rest of the story. KFC is now established in 80 countries and territories of the world, serving more than a billion chicken dinners anually.

We recently took our grandchildren through Corbin and stopped in at the site of the original Sanders Cafe. Next to the restaurant is a museum which preserves Sanders first kitchen with much of the original equipment and decor. It also gives highlights of this amazing American success story. You'll never view KFC the same.