The parkway passes the towns of Nortonville, Graham, Central City, Beaver Dam, Caneyville, Leitchfield, Clarkson, and Eastview.

A service area, which featured a gas station and an Arby's restaurant until it abruptly closed in January 2017 and is now a convenience store, is located in the median, just west of the interchange with I-165.

In January 2017, KYTC started a bidding process to find a new vendor and reopen the service area.

[4] According to the KYTC, it now features a total of 18 fuel pumps (10 regular, 8 diesel), plus a variety of prepared foods and a restaurant.

[5] The original segment of the parkway was envisioned as a 127-mile (204 km) toll road extending from Elizabethtown to Princeton.

The name of the roadway was chosen by means of a contest sponsored by the Kentucky Turnpike Authority,[6] which originally issued the bonds for the parkway's construction.

[7] In 1968, construction wrapped up on a 6.60-mile (10.62 km) extension of the Western Kentucky Parkway from Princeton to Interstate 24 in Eddyville at a cost of $5,554,468.

The decision to use it ended talk of a new route for I-69 through Union, Crittenden and Livingston counties along the Ohio River.

[16] Signage and mile markers were replaced on the 38-mile (61 km) westernmost stretch of the Western Kentucky Parkway in mid-December 2012.