History Through Museums and Distilleries

Since Kentucky played a large roll in the Civil War almost everywhere one goes there is a Civil War museum of one kind or another.  Bardstown is no exception.  I dragged John through two of them today.  The main museum told the story of the war with collected artifacts and story boards and did a very nice job with both.  I came away almost in tears from the stark reality of death and dying on the fields of battle.

A short walk through a reconstructed Bardstown village circa 1870 cleared my head and then we viewed a small museum focusing on the women in the Civil War.  I always think of Scarlett O’Hara, nurses and mammies but the reality is that many women were actively involved in the war.  Not only were they nurses in the field and in field hospitals but a couple of stories told about lady spies with Confederate leanings and more than a few women dressed as men and actually fought on the battle fields.  One lady was a sharp shooter, better than most men, and another not only cut her hair but added a beard and mustache so that she could join the army.  And we can’t leave out the black ladies like Harriet Tubman who risked their lives spiriting many black folks to safety through the Underground Railroad.

We learned a lot about the people of Kentucky by following their family trees as they have been making moonshine, whiskey and bourbon for many generations.  Today we toured and tasted at Heaven Hill and Willet Distilleries.  Heaven Hill produces bourbon with familiar names like Evan Williams and Elijah Craig.  It has a very large production.  

Willet Distillery on the other hand is a small craft distillery so our tour there took us through all parts of the process.  We saw the mash, the yeast bubbling up and the copper pot distiller.  A very small part of their production is automated, they have 40 employees, 8 rick houses, and the master distiller is the grandson while his father runs another part of the production.  By the way, the rick houses where the barrels are stored will hold anywhere from 6 - 10 thousand barrels.  A lot more than I previously reported.

We did not care for the sips we got at Heaven Hill but found Willet’s Bourbon to be very nice.  We had a bourbon flight at a restaurant before dinner and tried 5 more whiskeys with Jim Beam having the best of the ones we picked.  We can’t wait to open our Knob Hill now!