Page 87 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020 SPRING EDITION INTERACTIVE

brother, William, organized with Meriwether This attraction really is an experience. A MORE FOSSILS THAN ANYWHERE
Lewis the duo’s famed expedition across movie, created by Louisville’s own Solid ELSE
America. Light, is projected on a large wall as you
wander through the facility. It depicts Across the Ohio in Clarksville, Indiana, at
A bit earlier, around 1783, Evan Williams, Williams and the town’s leaders confer- the Falls of the Ohio State Park and Na-
then dock master here at the burgeoning ring about the dock master position and tional Wildlife Conservation Area (www.
town, became the first licensed distiller of the importance of its fees to the town. fallsoftheohio.org), history goes back
corn whiskey, which soon became bour- As we continued through the building, even further — 390 million years or so.
bon, the true American of all spirits that still we walked past a recreation of what
helps to define Kentucky. Then, this area of the Ohio
River was “a shallow ocean,”
And during the Civil War, said Dale Brown, interpretive
this bend in the Ohio was naturalist at the park. This
a beacon of freedom along marvelous day-use park’s
the Underground Railroad; exhibits even attempt to
the river’s southern neigh- bring that history to life.
bor, Kentucky, was a slave
holder, while its northern Reopened in 2016 after ex-
neighbor, Indiana, was a tensive renovation, the state
free state. park’s exhibits are wonderful.
We walked through a time
All of these historic events tunnel that took us to a De-
are commemorated and vonian sea hundreds of mil-
recreated in what is today lions of years ago. Life-sized
Louisville/Jefferson County, the metropoli- Main Street would have looked like here sea creatures of that ancient era waved
tan area that includes both the Louisville in the 1800s along with a 1960s-era above us. Then we see Native Ameri-
region (www.gotolouisville.com) and its tasting room. In a “secret” speakeasy can artifacts from the local Shawnee,
neighbors immediately across the Ohio in bar behind a vault-like door, we experi- including a recreation of a bark-thatched
Southern Indiana (www.gosoin.com). enced a tasting of Evan Williams’ various “wegiwa” home and we listen to a con-

bourbons paired with chocolates — a versation in the Shawnee language. We
I met some dear friends here this sum- watch a film of the story of Lewis and
heavenly match.
mer to eat and drink our way across this Clark’s journey that began near the Falls
bourbon-spiked region while immersing of the Ohio and continued all the way to
“It’s a Kentucky hug,” Andy Embry, our
ourselves in tales of yore that were truly the Pacific Ocean.
tour guide, told us about bourbon. “That
transporting.
warming feeling.” He taught us the tricks
The most amazing thing about the Falls
of tasting bourbon — which was named
BOURBON’S BEGINNINGS of the Ohio park is that today the largest
America’s only native spirit in 1964.
exposed Devonian-era fossil beds in the
We started with bourbon. world are found here on its limestone
“Always nose it first,” Embry said. “Use
a tulip-shaped glass. Part your lips. river banks. “There are 270 varieties of
The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience fossil animals here — more than any-
(www.evanwilliamsbourbonexperience. Take a deep whiff and smell what it will where else on earth,” said Brown.
com) celebrates that early dock master’s taste like. Take a small sip to cover your
legacy. On Louisville’s historic Whiskey tongue, and then roll it across each taste EXTRAORDINARY COURAGE
Row, this artisanal distillery was the first to bud. If you just throw it back, you will
open on Main Street since the late 1800s bypass all your buds.” It was in nearby New Albany, Indiana,
in November 2013. where the tears started flowing.

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