My regular readers will know that I seize travel opportunities whenever I can and have a desire to visit all 50 states. I have been lucky enough to visit both Hawaii and Alaska (and of course would love to go back) but I still have more than twenty to go here in the ‘lower 48’.
My closest friend from university days, a fellow Brit who by great good fortune has ended up living in Atlanta, is often my ‘partner in travel’.
Since my husband is a bit burnt out after literally millions of miles of business trips, my friend and I enjoy the occasional “girls-only” mini vacation or long weekend of travel. A couple of weeks ago we headed north to discover Louisville, Kentucky.
We chose to miss the craziness and high prices of the Kentucky Derby weekend but when we visited, the city was preparing for it. In fact, the nickname for Louisville is “Derby City”. Last weekend’s big horse race was damp and rainy but we were lucky enough to enjoy beautiful skies and sunshine in the largest city in Kentucky, which is pronounced “Lou-eeville”, not “Lou-uh-vull”.
This is because the city is named after the French king Louis XVI, pronounced “Louie”, as a sign of gratitude for his role in helping colonial America during the Revolutionary War. The city was described to us by one local resident as ‘Midwest with a southern flair’ and it is often referred to as Gateway to the South.
It was first visited by Europeans in 1773 when Captain Thomas Bullitt arrived to survey the area, sent by the governor of Virginia. During the American Revolution in 1778, a group of settlers organized a base for the conquest of British-held territories.
By 1811 Louisville had become an important frontier and river-flatboat trading post, and its development was further stimulated that year when Captain Nicholas Roosevelt docked the New Orleans, the first steamboat to successfully ply the waters of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
The city had become a major river port by 1820 with the construction of a canal around the 25-foot falls in the Ohio River. In fact, ‘Falls City’ is an old nickname for Louisville because of its location near these falls.
During the American Civil War, the city served as a military headquarters and a major Union supply depot. It escaped the ravages of war and became an important way station or slaves seeking freedom in Indiana, just across the river. In the 1880s the Louisville and Nashville Railroad was extended all the way to Jacksonville, Florida.
Americans that aren’t very familiar with Louisville have often heard of it for one of three main reasons. The first is bourbon, which is of course American, barrel-aged whiskey distilled generally from corn. Bourbon derives its name from the French Bourbon dynasty, of which Louis XVI was a part. Bourbon’s flavors are developed from aging in new charred oak casks for at least two years, and many whiskey enthusiasts go on the ‘bourbon trail’ which includes visiting different distilleries around Louisville, learning about the history of bourbon and sampling extensively.
The second is that it is the headquarters of the Hillerich & Bradsby Company, makers of the famed Louisville Slugger baseball bats. The roots of the Louisville Slugger date to 1884 and are attributed to a young baseball fan, John A. “Bud” Hillerich, whose father operated a Louisville woodworking shop that produced bedposts, bowling pins, handrails, and ornaments. At that time, most baseball players whittled their own bats and often owned only one. The story goes that Hall-of-Famer-to-be Pete Browning, playing for the local team – the Louisville Eclipse – was in a batting slump and broke his bat during a game. Young Hillerich, who was just eighteen at the time, happened to be at the game and offered to produce a bat for Browning. The ball player agreed, and Hillerich spun one out of white ash to Browning’s exact specifications. The following day Browning broke out of his slump with three hits in three times at bat and requested that Hillerich produce additional bats. Soon other ball players began ordering Hillerich’s product. At first, they were known as Fall City Sluggers, but in 1894 Hillerich copyrighted the name Louisville Slugger, which was imprinted in an oval on every bat. Each ball player’s signature also was burned into in own bat. The rest is history and there is now a museum in Louisville dedicated to the Slugger.
The third reason that many have heard of Louisville is that it is the birthplace of Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr, later known as Muhammad Ali. Ali became an Olympic gold medalist in 1960 and the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1964. Following his suspension for refusing military service in the Vietnam War, Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title two more times during the 1970s, winning famed bouts against Joe Frazier and George Foreman along the way. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and devoted much of his retirement to philanthropy, earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. There is also a museum dedicated to his life and achievements.
There is more information at www. britannica.com I will leave you with a quote from Jim James, a rock musician who was raised there. “Louisville is a place with no labels….. It has some Southern romanticism to it, but also a Northern progressivism, this weird urban island in the middle of the state of Kentucky…. You (can) move away, but you’re always going to come back.”
God Bless America! Lesley grew up in London, England and made Georgia her home in 2009. She can be contacted at lesley@francis.com or via her full-service marketing agency at www.lesleyfrancispr.com.
