Wednesday, March 20 2024
After spending three days enjoying the byways of West Virginia it was time to make some progress towards Memphis and, today, I drove to Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky.
Before leaving Charleston I visited the West Virginia State Museum. I find that these state museums provide good insight into the history and culture of their states and this was an excellent example of how to do this. The permanent exhibition is a series of 26 Discovery Rooms that represent a timeline immersing the visitor in representations of life and important events of the area.
For example, Discovery Room 6 was filled with artifacts and information that explained how the State came into being during the civil war. Western Virginia residents were dissatisfied with their treatment and resources provided by the Virginia legislature in Richmond and relatively few Western Virginians held slaves, unlike the plantation owners further east. When Virginia seceded from the US at the start of the civil war a deal was made with the US to split the western area from Virginia and create the 35th State in exchange for a constitution that would abolish slavery over time. In fact, it was the only territorial change that resulted from the civil war.
Other significant Discovery Rooms explained the rise of logging, the development of oil and gas fields, and, of course, the mining of coal and the rise of coal mining company towns that the State is known for. Mine is shown above 🙂
Kentucky is known for race horses and bourbon whiskey. In 2018 I visited the home of Kentucky horse culture, Lexington, (blogged here) and today I focused on bourbon. Bourbon is defined as whiskey produced in the US from at least 51% corn and stored in a new container of charred oak.
About three weeks ago I went to book a distillery tour but all of the well known, and not so well known, tours were full. It turns out you need to book months in advance. I settled for a distillery “experience and tasting” at Glenns Creek Distillery which turned out to be better than a tour. Dave, the owner and head distiller, sat down with just five visitors explaining how he bought two old abandoned buildings and started a distillery. He described the business, his frustration with government regulations, his experiments to produce high quality bourbon and a host of other topics all while pouring tasters for us to try. Founded in 2009, it is still small with limited distribution only in Kentucky. Chatting with Dave was a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes.
The age and condition of the building belies the wonderful drinks that were poured and the distillery has a reputation for high quality bourbon.
The area has many huge, abandoned industrial buildings, such as this one right next to Glenns Creek. Some have been completely restored to house distilleries and thousands of barrels of aging bourbon.
Great journey from the early industrial era to the postindustrial era!
Tough at times and such a different life style from Northern Virginia. Deserves to be a separate State.