Today was all about Daniel Boone. Well, almost all about
Daniel Boone.
When we got up this morning we considered a side trip to Cumberland Falls, but with the snow falling as fast as the temperatures we decided we weren’t in the mood for a hike. So we played a little map roulette.
The wheel stopped on
Winchester, Kentucky, a place neither of us had ever heard of before. I did a little Internet research and found that it was near
Fort Boonesborough so we headed out for the short trip to Winchester.
Sometimes it pays to take a gamble.
Winchester was great! It is a city with a 100-year-old downtown and a great old courthouse (not as great as the one we have in Lapeer, Michigan, but pretty darn close). Once in Winchester we just started asking folks questions and they suggested a trip to the
Bluegrass Heritage Museum, so off we went.
What a great little hometown museum. The building itself was in a restored old home that once housed a doctor’s residence and later a small hospital for patients who didn’t want to make the “long” trek to Lexington. Our tour guide was well informed and taught me many things a Civil War and history buff should have known, but embarrassingly didn’t. Here are a few things I learned today:
1. Kentucky was once a county in Virginia.
2. Kentucky has more counties than any other state, except one in the United States.
3. When Kentucky became the 15th state the American flag was increased to 15 stripes, but was later chopped back to 13 when the powers that be decided a 20-stripe flag was too big. They have an original
15-stripe, 15-star flag to prove it at the museum.
4. Kentucky had representatives in both the Confederate government and the federal government due to it being a
border state that never officially declared its secession.
5. Owners of slaves who escaped north to enlist in the Union army had to be compensated for their loss by the federal government due to the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to them.
6. One of the Iwo Jima flag-raisers
Franklin Sousley was from a town near Winchester.
7. A World War II Marine,
Harold G. Epperson, a Winchester native, won the Congressional Medal of Honor when he threw himself on a grenade to save his comrades, dying in the process. Later, a Navy destroyer –
the USS Epperson – was named for him. Interestingly, my destroyer was part of a task force that included the Epperson during the Vietnam War.
8.
Homer Ledford, a world famous dulcimer maker and player came from Winchester. Our docent made it clear that Homer, who had played in Ireland, Europe and Japan, was about the biggest celebrity to every come out of Winchester. Although we had never heard of him, it was obvious how proud they were of Homer.
9. Our docent further told us that if Gen. Sherman had not been so successful in Georgia in 1864 near the end of the Civil War that President Lincoln would not have been re-elected and the South could have won the war or negotiated peace terms beneficial to the south. He told us that with a tinge of sadness.
10. We learned that trace was another word for trail. We also learned the importance of "licks" as in Paint Lick, Blue Lick and any number of other "Licks" around here. The natural salt deposits drew wildlife, which drew hunters, which drew more people and eventually towns.
The museum had a telephone room with lots of old telephones, telephone switchboards and equipment that would make anyone of our age nostalgic. Actually Joan's parents still have and use one of the phones that is in the museum.
They had plenty of priceless Civil War artifacts, including original uniforms, swords, guns and handwritten journals by local men who served in the war. It was a wonderful stop that did not disappoint.
On the recommendation of our tour guide, we stopped and purchased a six pack of
Ale 8-1, a local soft drink. We were also told to purchase only the 12 ounce bottles, because the smaller version was produced in another city and the taste is different. (Tasted like Vernor's).
Next we stopped by some earthen works that stood as a small
Civil War post along the Kentucky River and then on to Boonesborough, a 1700s settlement and fort made famous by my childhood hero, Fess Parker, ‘er I mean Daniel Boone. Fess Parker also played another American hero, Davy Crockett, who were remarkably similar in appearance and legend with each other. Both equally fictionalized, however.
The fort was famous for a 1788 siege in which the Shawnee Indians accompanied by 12 French soldiers attempted to breach the fort at Boonesborough for 13 days. Four settlers and 37 Indians and French soldiers were killed in the siege. The Indians and French gave up and left.
The first tour guide we came across kind of took some of the romance out of the story by informing us that the current Fort Boonesborough was built in the 1970s from some scratchy drawings of what the original Fort Boonesborough looked like.
He also told us that the original site of the fort was a short distance away from where the new one was built for just we tourists.
But I like the truth, so I’m glad he didn’t try to pass the fort or location off as original. The cabins at the fort included docents performing tasks from the 1700s: Candle-making, weaving, blacksmithing, soap making, carpentry, spinning, and a potter.
What I learned about Daniel Boone:
1. He didn’t actually wear a coon skin cap, but rather liked a wide-brimmed hat.
2. He was 40 when he arrived a Boonesborough, a fairly ‘mature’ man for that era to be taking on such a difficult task.
Even with the myth busting tour guide’s information it was still a pretty interesting stop.
On the way back to the RV park we stopped at the
Kentucky Artisan Center at Berea, which had a lot of interesting local and regional craft items. Not needing anything more to dust at home, we enjoyed looking around but left empty-handed.
For dinner we headed to the
Boone Tavern & Hotel in Berea. Many people told us to make sure to eat there and boy were they right. A lot of folks warned us about the dress code (which seemed odd for a place with a picture of its namesake in a buckskin outfit on the wall) so we dressed up for dinner.
As it turned out we didn’t have to, as many folks were in there tourist garb and blue jeans. The food was terrific. Joan had the Shrimp and Scallops, asparagus and angel-hair pasta and I had Lamb chops with mashed potatoes.
My sister-in-law Barbara makes the best lamb chops I have eaten, but Boone Tavern did a pretty good job as well. Barbara’s lamb chops, which come with a large serving of love, win the day though.
Just after we were seated at Boone's Tavern, I heard a voice at a table near us say, “Well, look who’s here?”
Joan and I looked up and it was our friends Rose and Barry from Lapeer. They were taking a few days away from home too, but the odds of meeting someone from Lapeer, Michigan in a fancy restaurant in Berea Kentucky have to be pretty long.
It is truly a small world.
Tomorrow:
Frankfort, Kentucky and a new RV Park.
While we were gone I paid the neighbor, Wes, to use his ample skills as a tree cutter to clear a spot for our new trailer next to the house.
