Frankfort - Kentucky's Capitol and much more!

While we were parked at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, we planned a day trip to Frankfort to visit the capitol of this state.

It was just a 28-mile drive to Frankfort, and we are trying to visit as many state capitol buildings as possible. It's a fun (and free) thing to do in every state where we travel. We had a few minutes before our scheduled tour, so we walked around the outside perimeter of the building.

That would include the 34-foot floral clock that a facebook friend had told us about. They were just planting the clock when they visited earlier this spring, and the state web site explains that it takes more than 10,000 plants to keep time in Kentucky. So we're including a more mature picture of the Kentucky clock for you, Rochelle.

We also dropped by the Capitol Rose Garden before our tour.

While most of the roses were past their blooming prime by now, Denisa took this picture of the prettiest rose in the garden.

The view from the front steps shows the long green entrance into the capitol building. We overheard the conversation between the two people in the picture below. They were discussing the color of the flowers that will be planted inside the green design--should it be yellow or red flowers? Denisa's vote is for yellow.

Our inside capitol tour started in the rotunda, where Kentucky's favorite son is center stage. That would be Abraham Lincoln--not Mark.

In one of the places of honor in the corner of the rotunda we recognize Alben Barkley. He was Truman's Vice-President, and we had already learned about him from the museum in Paducah. We were sad to see that one corner of the rotunda was obviously empty where the statue of another famous American born in Kentucky once stood. It looks like Kentucky has succumbed to "cancel-culture" and removed the statue of Jefferson Davis.

Our tour guide pointed out the beautiful dome high over the rotunda.

It's the only dome in the United States with color-changing lights, that cycle through shades of purple and green and yellow and . . .

We see that the rotunda is set up for a meeting this morning. Team Kentucky showed up during our tour, and we saw the governor at that podium when we were looking down from the third floor.

On the third floor our tour guide pointed out a gallery that honored other famous Kentucky citizens. We readily recognized Colonel Sanders. We feel like we should be eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken while we are in this state.

Denisa enjoyed the large glass display that honored each of the first ladies of this state. Replicas of the dresses that each woman wore at their husband's gubernatorial ball were sewn in miniature. Those outfits included bonnets that were in vogue in 1792.

We recognized the name "Phyllis George Brown" (on the right) as one of Kentucky's more recent first ladies. She was Miss America and a pioneering female sports reporter before she married the governor. We've come full circle on this blog when we discovered that Governor Brown owned Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The dresses of the most recent first ladies were more fitted and the doll frames more glamorous and life-like. 

Our one-hour tour took us through the supreme court. In a building that is mostly marble and granite, this room was entirely finished in wood.

We also got to go into the house and senate quarters because they are not in session at this time. Our tour guide knows that a special session is planned soon, but she didn't know what the pressing issue is that needs this special meeting of the legislature.

This gathering room is only used for very formal events. But people aren't allowed to sit on the furniture that is original to 1909.

The national quilt museum is in Paducah, Kentucky, and they send a changing quilt display to the capitol. Denisa matches the red/white/and blue display this summer.

This capitol is very beautiful with its grand marble stair cases and stained glass windows. Our tour guide also pointed out the original paintings that are framed in more marble. This one is of Daniel Boone, standing on a ridge looking over the Kentucky River.

That ridge was our next destination after we finished our capitol tour. We are now where Daniel Boone once stood, looking down on the Kentucky River. He would also have been looking at the future building site of the state capitol, as you can see the capitol's dome to the far right in the picture below.

We are in the Frankfort Cemetery, at the grave site of Daniel Boone and his wife. This large marker was placed here in memory of them when their remains were moved to Frankfort in 1845.

The Boones had moved to Missouri, and Rebecca died there in 1813. She was buried in a small cemetery in Missouri. When Daniel died a few years later, the spot next to her was already taken, so he was buried at her feet. The Frankfort cemetery recognized that it was good business to have famous people buried here. So they convinced the Boone's ancestors to have them moved to Frankfort where they could lie in rest side by side with this impressive head stone.

Our next stop in Frankfort was one of the neatest war memorials we have ever visited. Mark is standing beneath the very large gnomon (the word for the pointy thing that casts a shadow on a sun dial).

Engraved into the granite are the names of the 1,108 Kentucky soldiers that died in the Vietnam war. They are arranged on the face of this giant sundial in such a way that the shadow of the gnomon will point to the name of the soldier on the anniversary of his death. That is the most thoughtful memorial we have visited in our time on the road.

On the side of the memorial that never has a shadow, the names of the soldiers that were prisoners of war or were missing in action are etched.

Nothing is very far from the state capitol, as we could see that dome from this Vietnam War Memorial as well.

Our last stop in Frankfort was to the oldest continuously operating distillery in Kentucky--Buffalo Trace. We soon found that all of the tours were already booked for the day, but a very kind clerk managed to slip the two of us into the last tour of the day. That's where we learned that Buffalo Trace was continuously operating even during the 13 years of Prohibition. It received a highly-sought-after permit to produce medicinal bourbon during those years. Our tour guide explained that there were a lot of sick people needing prescriptions for bourbon in the 1920s.

We've already talked about the process of distilling bourbon from our tour in Bardstown. So we'll just hit on the highlights we learned from Buffalo Trace. For instance, the rack rooms we saw in Bardstown were all painted black, but here they still use the old brick buildings. The reason that newer ones are painted black is to hide the black mold that grows on everything near a distillery. 

Built in 1775, this company got its name from the buffalo that migrated through this area at that time. An animal trail is called a trace, so they adopted the name "Buffalo Trace" even before the United States became a country. The factory campus has expanded many times over those years, and the different phases of production are now far apart. The overhead pipes are used to transport their product to the still and to bottling and . . . 

That black mold that covers the brick and pipes, also covers the trees. Instead of brown, the trees now have black trunks.

One of the stops on our tour was the building where the brand new wooden barrels arrive from the cooperage that makes them. That's another new word for the day: a cooperage is the place where the coopers build wooden barrels. Buffalo Trace will produce so much bourbon that they need to receive 1,000 new barrels each day.

Our tour guide explained the process of making each one of these barrels by hand. An experienced cooper will select solid wood slats in differing widths to fit tightly into the base of the barrel form. When water and steam are added, a chain draws the softened wood together at the top and metal bands it in the barrel shape we see today. This process makes a liquid-tight container, that is then burnt lightly (or charred) to the specifications of the distillery. It's that char that will eventually turn the clear alcohol into the brown color of bourbon.

These barrels can only be used one time to make bourbon. We also visited one of the rack rooms, where 20,000 barrels are stored for 4 to 23 years--depending on the type of bourbon being produced. Barrels that spend all that time on the top floors will get hotter in the summer and colder in the winter, so they make a different bourbon than the ones on the bottom floors. The new rack rooms that are being built today can hold 58,000 barrels.

But in all those barrels, the alcohol is evaporating over time. Some of it soaks into the wood of the barrel, and all of the barrels will be considerably less full when they are opened. The picture below shows the fullness after one year, and again after nine years.

While Buffalo Trace has a sophisticated bottling plant that packages thousands of bottles each day, we got a tour of the hand-bottling plant. Two lines fill four bottles at a time in this painstakingly slow process that hand wipes and hand labels each bottle.

That's because these are premium bottles that come from a single barrel. All this special attention also means that they will charge a special price for this bourbon. Finally, these bottles are crowned with a special horse-shaped topper.

In order to entice customers to spend the money for these special bottles, loyal customers try to collect a complete set of the horses. A real collector will have all eight horses mounted on one of those charred barrel staves. We have learned some interesting things about the bourbon industry and its customers!

This is a growing industry, and Buffalo Trace has bought more land and built more rack rooms to hold their increasing production. But since their increased production won't hit the shelves for another 4-23 years, they are hoping that the popularity of bourbon continues. They save and display each of the "millionth" barrel tops in their visitor center. That display is growing, with the eight million top scheduled to appear on the wall in the shortest time period yet. Today they were at 7,896,213 barrels produced since they started in 1775.

Our tour guide agreed with the other tour we took. He explained that Kentucky produces 95% of all bourbon--and 100% of all the GOOD bourbon. At the end of every tour comes a bourbon tasting.  

Buffalo Trace has this down to a science, with a specially-made placemat that describes each product we will sample. Our sample glasses were almost as full after our tiny taste--until we came to the last glass. That's Freddie's Root Beer, and it was delightful! We also gobbled up that foil-wrapped bourbon-flavored chocolate that didn't taste like bourbon at all to us. We're the people that cause the tour guides to roll their eyes.

We had a fun and informational day in Frankfort! We started with the state capitol, but we found so much more to keep us busy today!