Louisville, Kentucky

September 14-15, 2017

Frazier Kentucky History Museum

We toured two major exhibits: Prohibition and Kentucky and The Corps of Discovery.

95% of the world’s bourbon is made in Kentucky so it might seem odd that Kentucky was the third state to ratify that 18th amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale or distribution of intoxicating liquors. The exhibit traced the history of prohibition and some of its effects.

The Corps of Discovery was a specially-established unit of the United States Army which formed the nucleus of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804-1806. Lewis and Clark organized for their expedition at the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville. The exhibit included replicas of the expedition’s 55-foot long keelboat, campsites, and communications. The exhibit showed the people involved, the routes taken, the equipment used and some of the challenges met.

In Town

After the museum, we wandered toward the river, taking in some sights from the sidewalk on Museum Row.

The Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

A 30-foot tall fiberglass replica of Michelangelo’s David

The Fort Nelson Building, 801 W. Main St.

And, adjacent to the Fort Nelson building, a plaque commemorating Fort Nelson.

Highway geometry.

And then the Ohio River itself at The Falls of the Ohio. 8000 years ago native people hunted and fished here. In the 1700s French trappers and missionaries passed through. English explorers followed in the mid-1700s and in 1778 George Rogers Clark trained troops here. Twenty-five years later, Clark’s younger brother William Clark and Meriwether Lewis set out from here on their expedition. John James Audubon painted here 1807-10. Clearly, the area has history, and river traffic, train trestles, and the clouds in the sky evoke thoughts of all that has passed before–in time and place. The Falls of the Ohio once were a drop of 26 feet over two and a half miles. The drop has been lessened by the removal of material for street paving, cement manufacture, and navigation improvements.