Kentucky's Frontier Highway

Kentucky's Frontier Highway PDF Author: Karl Raitz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813140692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
“A remarkable historical and geographical study” of a road linking Lexington and Maysville, Kentucky, and its influence on America (West Virginia History). Eighteenth-century Kentucky beckoned to hunters, surveyors, and settlers from the mid-Atlantic coast colonies as a source of game, land, and new trade opportunities. Unfortunately, the Appalachian Mountains formed a daunting barrier that left only two primary roads to this fertile Eden. The steep grades and dense forests of the Cumberland Gap rendered the Wilderness Road impassable to wagons, and the northern route extending from southeastern Pennsylvania became the first main thoroughfare to the rugged West, winding along the Ohio River and linking Maysville to Lexington in the heart of the Bluegrass. Kentucky’s Frontier Highway reveals the astounding history of the Maysville Road, a route that served as a theater of local settlement, an engine of economic development, a symbol of the national political process, and an essential part of the Underground Railroad. Authors Karl Raitz and Nancy O’Malley chart its transformation from an ancient footpath used by Native Americans and early settlers to a central highway, examining the effect that its development had on the evolution of transportation technology as well as the usage and abandonment of other thoroughfares, and illustrating how this historic road shaped the wider American landscape. “The authors demonstrate quite convincingly that rich local history lies along our roads. They unearthed an abundance of behind-the-scenes information that is invisible to us as we barrel down the highway. It should give all readers pause to consider how much more they could know about the places they travel through.” —Craig E. Colten, author of Perilous Place, Powerful Storms: Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana “A very well researched and well-written book that makes a significant contribution to the study of American roads, U.S. settlement history, and Kentucky history in particular. The authors’ approach is broad and multifaceted, well organized, and keenly focused on the myriad aspects of an important path, the land and time it transits. This is a fine holistic study of an important and complex road and its many geographical and historical components.” —Drake Hokanson, author of Lincoln Highway: Main Street across America “This notable and ably-illustrated volume . . . captures the rigors of frontier Appalachian geography and the utter ingenuity of diverse peoples bent on moving west. The road is perhaps the greatest of American themes?it encapsulates freedom, mobility, possibility, escape, commerce, crime and calumny, adventure, and romance. Thank goodness we have these two able storytellers to give us the narrative of the Maysville Road.” —Paul F. Starrs, Regents & Foundation Professor of Geography (University of Nevada), and recipient, J.B. Jackson Prize, Association of American Geographers

Kentucky's Frontier Highway

Kentucky's Frontier Highway PDF Author: Karl Raitz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813140692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 515

Get Book

Book Description
“A remarkable historical and geographical study” of a road linking Lexington and Maysville, Kentucky, and its influence on America (West Virginia History). Eighteenth-century Kentucky beckoned to hunters, surveyors, and settlers from the mid-Atlantic coast colonies as a source of game, land, and new trade opportunities. Unfortunately, the Appalachian Mountains formed a daunting barrier that left only two primary roads to this fertile Eden. The steep grades and dense forests of the Cumberland Gap rendered the Wilderness Road impassable to wagons, and the northern route extending from southeastern Pennsylvania became the first main thoroughfare to the rugged West, winding along the Ohio River and linking Maysville to Lexington in the heart of the Bluegrass. Kentucky’s Frontier Highway reveals the astounding history of the Maysville Road, a route that served as a theater of local settlement, an engine of economic development, a symbol of the national political process, and an essential part of the Underground Railroad. Authors Karl Raitz and Nancy O’Malley chart its transformation from an ancient footpath used by Native Americans and early settlers to a central highway, examining the effect that its development had on the evolution of transportation technology as well as the usage and abandonment of other thoroughfares, and illustrating how this historic road shaped the wider American landscape. “The authors demonstrate quite convincingly that rich local history lies along our roads. They unearthed an abundance of behind-the-scenes information that is invisible to us as we barrel down the highway. It should give all readers pause to consider how much more they could know about the places they travel through.” —Craig E. Colten, author of Perilous Place, Powerful Storms: Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana “A very well researched and well-written book that makes a significant contribution to the study of American roads, U.S. settlement history, and Kentucky history in particular. The authors’ approach is broad and multifaceted, well organized, and keenly focused on the myriad aspects of an important path, the land and time it transits. This is a fine holistic study of an important and complex road and its many geographical and historical components.” —Drake Hokanson, author of Lincoln Highway: Main Street across America “This notable and ably-illustrated volume . . . captures the rigors of frontier Appalachian geography and the utter ingenuity of diverse peoples bent on moving west. The road is perhaps the greatest of American themes?it encapsulates freedom, mobility, possibility, escape, commerce, crime and calumny, adventure, and romance. Thank goodness we have these two able storytellers to give us the narrative of the Maysville Road.” —Paul F. Starrs, Regents & Foundation Professor of Geography (University of Nevada), and recipient, J.B. Jackson Prize, Association of American Geographers

Kentucky's Last Frontier

Kentucky's Last Frontier PDF Author: Henry P. Scalf
Publisher: The Overmountain Press
ISBN: 9781570721656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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Book Description
Presents the history of the exploration, settlement, and development of the vast mountain empire encompassed by several eastern Kentucky counties that pays attention to Civil War sites in the area.

Running Mad for Kentucky

Running Mad for Kentucky PDF Author: Ellen Eslinger
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813183901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
The crossing of America's first great divide—the Appalachian Mountains—has been a source of much fascination but has received little attention from modern historians. In the eighteenth century, the Wilderness Road and Ohio River routes into Kentucky presented daunting natural barriers and the threat of Indian attack. Running Mad for Kentucky brings this adventure to life. Primarily a collection of travel diaries, it includes day-to-day accounts that illustrate the dangers thousands of Americans, adult and child, black and white, endured to establish roots in the wilderness. Ellen Eslinger's vivid and extensive introductory essay draws on numerous diaries, letters, and oral histories of trans-Appalachian travelers to examine the historic consequences of the journey, a pivotal point in the saga of the continent's indigenous people. The book demonstrates how the fabled soil of Kentucky captured the imagination of a young nation.

Frontier Kentucky

Frontier Kentucky PDF Author: Otis K. Rice
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081318536X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
Otis Rice tells the dramatic story of how the first state beyond the mountains came into being. Kentucky dates its settled history from the founding of Harrodsburg in 1774 and of Boonesborough in 1775. But the drama of frontier Kentucky had its beginnings a full century before the arrival of James Harrod and Daniel Boone. The early history of the Bluegrass state is a colorful and significant chapter in the expansion of the American frontier. Rice traces the development of Kentucky through the end of the Revolutionary War. He deals with four major themes: the great imperial rivalry between England and France in the mid-eighteenth century for control of the Ohio Valley; the struggle of white settlers to possess lands claimed by the Indians and the liquidation of Indian rights through treaties and bloody conflicts; the importance of the land, the role of the speculator, and the progress of settlement; the conquest of a wilderness bountiful in its riches but exacting in its demands and the planting of political, social, and cultural institutions. Included are maps that show the changing boundaries of Kentucky as it moved toward statehood.

Anatomy of a Duel

Anatomy of a Duel PDF Author: Stuart W. Sanders
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081319847X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
When the popular musical Hamilton showcased the celebrated duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, it reminded twenty-first-century Americans that some honor-bound citizens once used negotiated, formal fights as a way to settle differences. During the Civil War, two prominent Kentuckians—one a Union colonel and the other a pro-Confederate civilian—continued this legacy by dueling. At a time when thousands of soldiers were slaughtering one another on battlefields, Colonel Leonidas Metcalfe and William T. Casto transformed the bank of the Ohio River into their own personal battleground. On May 8, 1862, these two men, both of whom were steeped in Southern honor culture, fought a formal duel with rifles at sixty yards. And, as in the fight between Hamilton and Burr, only one man walked away. Anatomy of a Duel: Secession, Civil War, and the Evolution of Kentucky Violence examines why white male Kentuckians engaged in the "honor culture" of duels and provides fascinating narratives that trace the lives of duelists. Stuart W. Sanders explores why, during a time when Americans were killing one another in open, brutal warfare, Casto and Metcalfe engaged in the process of negotiating and fighting a duel. In deconstructing the event, Sanders details why these distinguished Kentuckians found themselves on the dueling ground during the nation's bloodiest conflict, how society and the Civil War pushed them to fight, why duels continued to be fought in Kentucky even after this violent confrontation, and how Kentuckians applied violence after the Civil War. Anatomy of a Duel is a comprehensive and compelling look at how the secession crisis sparked the Casto-Metcalfe duel—a confrontation that impacted the evolution of violence in Kentucky.

Bourbon's Backroads

Bourbon's Backroads PDF Author: Karl Raitz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813182565
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Kentucky's landscape is punctuated by landmark structures that signpost bourbon's venerable story: distilleries long-standing, relict, razed, and brand new, the grand nineteenth-century homes of renowned distillers, villages and neighborhoods where distillery laborers lived, Whiskey Row storage warehouses, river landings and railroad yards, and factories where copper distilling vessels and charred white oak barrels are made. During the nineteenth century, distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry that practiced increasingly refined production techniques. Distillers often operated at comparatively remote sites—along the "backroads"—to take advantage of water sources or river or turnpike transport access. As time passed, steam power and mechanization freed the industry from its reliance on waterpower and permitted distillers to relocate to urban and rural rail-side sites. This shift also allowed distillers to perfect their production techniques, increase their capacity, and refine their marketing strategies. The historic progression produced the "fine" Kentucky bourbons that are available to present day consumers. Yet, distillers have not abandoned their cultural roots and traditions; their iconic products embrace the modern while also engaging their history and geography. Blending several topics—inventions and innovations in distilling and transport technologies, tax policy, geography, landscapes, and architecture—this primer and geographical guide presents an accessible and detailed history of the development of Kentucky's distilling industry and explains how the industry continues to thrive.

Roadside History

Roadside History PDF Author: Melba Porter Hay
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 9780916968298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Published by the Kentucky Historical Society and distributed by the University Press of Kentucky We have all spied them as we blast down I-75 scanning the roadside for anything of interest or rolled past one while trying to find an elusive gas station in an unfamiliar small town. Perhaps we have even stopped to read one outside the local courthouse. Since 1949, the Kentucky Historical Highway Marker program has erected more than 1,800 markers that highlight the rich diversity of the state's local and regional history as well as topics of statewide, and sometimes national, importance. They provide on-the-spot Kentucky history lessons, depicting subjects as diverse as a seven-year-old boy who served as a drummer in the Revolutionary War to a centuries-old sassafras tree. Roadside History is a key to the markers, enabling travelers to read Kentucky history without stopping to see each marker as they pass. There are two indexes arranged by subject and county.

Tales from the Kentucky Hemp Highway

Tales from the Kentucky Hemp Highway PDF Author: Dan Isenstein
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467148830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
"Among the many hidden gems in Bluegrass history is the state's long relationship with hemp, a history noted by a historical "Hemp Highway" destination. ... New organizations like Homestead Alternatives and Zelios, Inc. have taken that history into the modern world. Author Dan Isenstein details the history of the crop and the historic trail dedicated to it."--Back cover.

Making Bourbon

Making Bourbon PDF Author: Karl Raitz
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813178789
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 844

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Book Description
“Raitz examines the rich story of distilling in its Kentucky heartland and traces its maturation from a local craft to an enduring industry.” —William Wyckoff, author of How to Read the American West While other industries chase after the new and improved, bourbon makers celebrate traditions that hearken back to an authentic frontier craft. Distillers enshrine local history in their branding and time-tested recipes, and rightfully so. Kentucky’s unique geography shaped the whiskeys its settlers produced, and for more than two centuries, distilling bourbon fundamentally altered every aspect of Kentucky’s landscape and culture. Making Bourbon: A Geographical History of Distilling in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky illuminates how the specific geography, culture, and ecology of the Bluegrass converged and gave birth to Kentucky’s favorite barrel-aged whiskey. Expanding on his fall 2019 release Bourbon’s Backroads, Karl Raitz delivers a more nuanced discussion of bourbon’s evolution by contrasting the fates of two distilleries in Scott and Nelson Counties. In the nineteenth century, distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry. The resulting infrastructure—farms, mills, turnpikes, railroads, steamboats, lumberyards, and cooperage shops—left its permanent mark on the land and traditions of the commonwealth. Today, multinational brands emphasize and even construct this local heritage. This unique interdisciplinary study uncovers the complex history poured into every glass of bourbon. “A gem. The depth of Raitz’s research and the breadth of his analysis have produced a masterful telling of the shift from craft to industrial distilling. And in telling us the story of bourbon, Raitz also makes a terrific contribution to our understanding of America's nineteenth-century economy.” —David E. Hamilton, author of From New Day to New Deal

Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway

Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway PDF Author: Deborah Kohl Kremer
Publisher: Arcadia Library Editions
ISBN: 9781531644505
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway is a slice of Americana pie. Known also as U.S. 25 and the Lexington-Covington Turnpike, the once-rural route connects the urban cores of Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport to Central Kentucky. Originally a buffalo trail and named in the early 1800s, the route became a paved national highway in the 1920s. The creation of the thoroughfare encouraged the growth of several communities along its route that still thrive today. Images of America: Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway captures historic images of the people and places along the Dixie Highway beginning in Covington and heading south through Boone County. The photographs--some taken as early as the mid-1800s--depict time's influence as well as those things that remain the same. The 200 images inside offer readers a chance to revisit the friends, familiar sites, and memorable times enjoyed along Northern Kentucky's Dixie Highway.