1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (53 page)

Kentucky

Fire up a Ricky Skaggs tune and your car’s engine and hit this winding ribbon of mountain road for a one-of-a-kind Kentucky adventure. Highway 23, the “Country Music Highway,” winds 144 miles along
the state’s craggy eastern backbone, from Greenup County in the north to Letcher County in the south. Besides visual splendor, this National Scenic Byway provides a primer on many musical legends who have emerged from these ancient Appalachian hills and hollows. Highway markers signal the hometowns of country stars Skaggs, Patty Loveless, The Judds, Billy Ray Cyrus, Crystal Gayle, Hylo Brown, Gary Stewart, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Dwight Yoakam, and many more.

Allow two days for a leisurely exploration of the road, which connects the towns of Greenup and Whitesburg. Along the midway point near Paintsville lies legendary Butcher Hollow, where a dusty gravel road leads to the humble log cabin where the Queen of Country Music, America’s beloved “Coal Miner’s Daughter” Loretta Lynn, was born on April 14, 1935. Today, her brother Herman Webb still gives tours of the family home. Nearby in Staffordsville sits the Mountain Homeplace, an 1850s working farm with blacksmith barn, church, and gift shop where quilts, painted gourds, and handmade dolls are sold. TV’s John Boy Walton himself (actor Richard Thomas, a native of these parts) narrates a film about the early Appalachian settlers, who first arrived in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

In Prestonsburg, visit the Mountain Arts Center (MAC), a performance hall that’s home to the Kentucky Opry, a musical variety show modeled after the one in Nashville, TN (see p. 473).

W
HERE
: runs from Greenup (119 miles northeast of Lexington) south to Whitesburg.
Visitor info:
Tel 877-TOUR-SEKY or 606-677-6099;
www.tourseky.com
;
www.countrymusichighway.com
;
www.byways.org
.
B
UTCHER
H
OLLOW
: Van Lear. Tel 606-789-3397.
M
OUNTAIN
H
OMEPLACE
: Staffordsville. Tel 800-42-5790 or 606-297-1850;
www.mountainhomeplace.com
.
M
OUNTAIN
A
RTS
C
ENTER
: Prestonsburg. Tel 888-622-2787 or 606-886-2623;
www.macarts.com
.

An Unchanged Corner of the Appalachians

Kentucky

Springtime is sublime in Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. The winding path to Pinnacle Overlook is awash in wildflowers—colorful columbine, bloodroot, and trillium. No less glorious are the second and
third weeks of October, when the hazy mountainsides are ablaze in scarlet and gold foliage. And then there are all the months in between.

Cumberland Gap, at 20,000 acres, is one of the largest national historic parks in America, part of an expanse of land in southeastern Kentucky near the Virginia and Tennessee borders, loosely known as Daniel Boone country. Before the Pennsylvania-born frontiersman Boone came upon Cumberland Gap in 1769, English settlers had no way to cross the formidable Appalachian Mountains. He returned in 1775, accompanied by a band of axe-wielding men, to blaze the rugged Wilderness Trail, which followed an old Indian path and opened Kentucky and beyond to westward expansion. By 1810, more than 250,000 settlers had streamed through the passageway.

Along with 70 miles of hiking trails, the park’s seasonal highlights include Pinnacle Overlook, a dramatic vista reached via the 4-mile Skyland Road. A visit to Hensley Settlement, on a plateau on Brush Mountain, evokes life on a rustic Appalachian settlement dating from 1903 to the 1950s. Tour guides lead visitors through the cabins, barns, granary, springhouse, and blacksmith shop and explain life’s daily challenges.

Stretching north of Cumberland Gap is the vast Daniel Boone National Forest, a 21-county area that includes private and state land used for recreation, wildlife, fishing, and timber. The lush landscape of oaks, pines, and hemlocks invites hikers with its 600 miles of trails and outdoor enthusiasts to some 100 recreation sites. The Red River Gorge Scenic Byway (from Stanton to Zachariah) is a paved road that follows the Red River, affording nearly 20 miles of beautiful views with glimpses of more than 100 natural sandstone arches.

At 68 feet high and 125 feet wide, Cumberland Falls is known as the Niagara of the South.

West of the Gap, the Cumberland River and its tributaries spill into the Big South Fork National Recreation Area, where 90 miles of gorges, mountains, and valleys extend from Kentucky through Tennessee. White-water rafting, hiking, fishing, and biking pull in adventure seekers. A more sedentary but no less spectacular option is a 3-hour train ride (originating in small-town Stearns) on the Big South Fork Scenic Railway, which traverses mountain streams and passes to the Blue Heron Mining Community, where the skeletal remains of an early 1900s mine, company store, and church stand eerily silent.

C
UMBERLAND
G
AP
: Park visitor center is 130 miles south of Lexington in Middlesboro. Tel 606-248-2817;
www.nps.gov/cuga
.
Visitor info:
Tel 877-TOUR-SEKY or 606-677-6099;
www.tourseky.com
.
D
ANIEL
B
OONE
F
OREST
: Winchester. Tel 859-745-3100;
www.fs.fed.us/r8/boone
.
R
ED
R
IVER
G
ORGE
B
YWAY
:
www.byways.org
.
B
IG
S
OUTH
F
ORK
R
ECREATION
A
REA
: Stearns. Tel 606-376-5073;
www.nps.gov/biso
.
B
IG
S
OUTH
F
ORK
R
AILWAY
: Tel 800-462-5664 or 606-376-5330;
www.bsfsry.com
.
When:
closed Jan–Feb.
B
EST TIMES
: Apr for wildflowers; Oct for foliage.

Kentucky’s Oldest Frontier Town

Kentucky

Named for James Harrod, who founded this first permanent English-speaking settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains in 1774, quaint Harrodsburg bears the dual distinction of being the state’s oldest town as
well as the home of Kentucky’s oldest family-owned-and-operated inn, the renowned Beaumont.

This distinctive past comes alive at Old Fort Harrod State Park, where log structures replicate the frontier village’s 1775 fort. Costumed interpreters demonstrate woodworking, basket making, and blacksmithing, as billy goats bleat from straw-lined pens. A picnic area lies beneath the gnarled boughs of an Osage orange tree dating back to the late 1800s, and a hilltop pioneer cemetery contains 18th-century headstones. Also onsite, the modest Mansion Museum boasts an unexpectedly rich trove of Civil War artifacts and memorabilia related to two Kentucky-born opponents: President Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Opposite the museum is the Lincoln Marriage Temple, a steepled brick building that enshrines the one-room cabin where Abe Lincoln’s parents (Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks) were married on June 12, 1806.

Among Harrodsburg’s 50-some historical sites is the stately three-story Greek Revival Beaumont Inn. In the Dedman family since 1917, this charming plantation-style property rests on a tree-shaded hill within walking distance of downtown. Originally the site of the boyhood log home of John M. Harlan, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the present-day structure was built as a ladies’ finishing school in 1845. Virginian Thomas Smith, a Civil War colonel under Stonewall Jackson, renamed it Beaumont, French for “beautiful mount.”

It remains an apt description for the grand property, with its columned front porch lined with rocking chairs and its double parlor appointed with Empire and Victorian furniture. Other treasures include a grand piano dating back to 1893 and a carved wooden chair used by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he visited in 1934. Overnight guests may choose to stay in this building’s antiques-furnished rooms, two guest cottages, or in Greystone House, a 1931 limestone mansion whose guest rooms feature fireplaces and whirlpools.

Hospitality at the Beaumont Inn’s restaurant is available to everyone who stops by. The house
specialty is Kentucky country ham—hickory-smoked and cured on site—served with biscuits, corn pudding, and four-layer General Robert E. Lee cake. The inn’s pub-like Old Owl Tavern is a former carriage house whose crackling stone fireplace invites you to stop awhile and nurse a local bourbon.

W
HERE
: 32 miles southwest of Lexington.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-355-9192 or 859-734-2364;
www.harrodsburgky.com
.
O
LD
F
ORT
H
ARROD
S
TATE
P
ARK
: Tel 859-734-3314;
www.parks.ky.gov/stateparks/fh/index.htm
.
B
EAUMONT
I
NN
: Tel 800-352-3992 or 859-734-3381;
www.beaumontinn.com
.
Cost:
$95 (off-peak), $175 (peak); dinner $24.
When:
inn closed Jan–Feb.
B
EST TIMES
: May and Oct for the best weather, flea markets, and festivals.

An Extraordinary Society, Preserved

Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill’s plank-and-stone fences lace together 2,900 lush acres, grounds that contain 34 fully restored 19th-century buildings. The communal religious sect known as the Shakers lived, worked, and
worshiped in these family dwellings, a Meeting House, and farm buildings throughout much of the 1800s. Overnight stays help guests understand something of the inspiration the early residents found in this pastoral parcel of central Kentucky.

Immigrants from England who moved to upstate New York and New England beginning in 1774, the Shakers were peaceful, celibate men and women who believed in equal rights for all races and both sexes. The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing acquired the name Shakers because of the impassioned dancing and singing during their worship services. By 1823, there were almost 500 Shakers living at Pleasant Hill, which flourished for many years until its numbers began to dwindle in the late 1800s; it closed in 1910.

The Pleasant Hill Shakers farmed nearly 4,500 acres of fields and orchards, and built 260 structures.

A visit to “Shakertown,” as it’s known to locals, is a retreat into a slower, more reflective way of life, where simplicity and peacefulness extol the Shaker ideal of an environment that was heaven on earth. The largest and most completely restored Shaker community in the country, the site offers self-guided walking tours of the distinctive 19th-century brick and stone Shaker buildings, while costumed interpreters and craftspeople demonstrate such Shaker skills as broom making, woodworking, and weaving. Shop for quality Shaker
reproduction furniture, cookbooks, pottery, and textiles; take a ride along the Kentucky River aboard the
Dixie Belle
stern-wheeler; or wander the farm’s 40 miles of nature trails.

The austerely beautiful Trustees’ Office is a first-rate restaurant, where diners can expect such traditional Kentucky favorites as country ham and fried chicken along with such Shaker specialties as tart lemon pie. Take the twin spiral staircase to the second floor to find the sparse but comfortably furnished guest rooms with thick cotton bedspreads, rocking chairs, and handmade rugs accenting the hardwood floors. Venture out to find the 14 other historic buildings throughout Shaker Village where you can enjoy a contemplative overnight stay, imagining a life free of modern-day demands.