The Complete Guide to Kentucky

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Why is it called 'the Bluegrass State'?

Kentucky's nickname comes from the species of grass that covers much of the state and gives the countryside a blueish tinge. The landscape is one of rivers, lakes and rolling hills, dotted with attractive small towns. The sheer variety of what Kentucky has to offer is one of the state's most appealing features, along with the friendliness of the people.

The Ohio river, which marks the northern boundary, is also the demarcation between America's Southern states and the rest of the US. According to Nikki Heichelbech from the visitors' bureau in Lexington, the fact that Kentucky is part of the South gives it a particular atmosphere. "We're a bit slower-paced here. You'll find the Southern traditions: people will always say hello, and hold the door open for you."

The state has three main urban centres: Lexington, Louisville and North Kentucky (around the city of Covington). None of these is the state capital; rather than choose between them, the compromise was to make Frankfort the administrative centre. It is a pleasant little place, the highlights of which include the Old State Capitol building and the oldest governor's mansion in the nation.

In equine terms, Frankfort is eclipsed by Lexington – regarded as the horse capital of the world. The city is replete with stud farms: acres of undulating terrain that, over the years, have produced many of the world's best racehorses. This success in breeding champions is attributed to the calcium in the water, which itself is due to the limestone ridge running through this part of the state.

Horsing around?

The Kentucky Horse Park at 4089 Iron Works Parkway (001 859 233 4303; www.kyhorsepark.com ) is dedicated to exhibiting the region's equine breeding heritage and is home to nearly 50 breeds from all over the world.

A daily parade allows the horses to show off in front of an audience, with demonstrations of endurance techniques, dressage and reining, pioneered by cowboys in the American West. There is even a museum that explains how the cart really did come before the horse – oxen were originally used to pull wheeled vehicles along. The park opens 9am-5pm daily from 15 March-31 October, admission $15 (£7.90); Wednesday-Sunday the rest of the year, admission $9 (£4.75).

Among the retired racing champions who live in the Park are Cigar, whose winnings totalled nearly $10m. But anyone who wants to see a current champion in action should head to Lexington's race course, Keeneland, at 4201 Versailles Road (001 859 254 3412; www.keeneland.com ), an extremely popular place during the racing months of April and October.

Locals have no problem abandoning their offices for a flutter – "it seems to be a forgivable absence, an acceptable excuse for a day off", admitted one local-government employee (who did not want to be identified).

Early risers can go to Keeneland any day to watch the horses exercising on the track as dawn breaks. A reward for the lack of sleep is sustenance in the Track Kitchen (001 859 253 0541 ext 4681): the breakfast special, of scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage and a choice of potatoes, apples, grits – a polenta-style dish eaten with butter – or scone-like Southern biscuits with spicy white gravy, is available from 5am every morning for $4.25 (£2.25).

Time to place a bet?

One of the biggest events on the international racing calendar, the Kentucky Derby takes place at Churchill Downs racecourse in Louisville (001 502 636 4400; www.churchilldowns.com ) on the first Saturday of every May. Around 6pm BST today, a crowd of 157,000 people will rise to their feet and sing a chorus of "My Old Kentucky Home" before the runners and riders emerge to take part in what has been called "the greatest two minutes in sport". Grandstand tickets are both highly prized and highly priced, but a $40 (£21) ticket for the "infield" enables you to absorb the atmosphere.

There are plenty of quieter days to take in some racing at Churchill Downs. Races take place from the last Sunday in April until the Saturday following 4 July, and from the last Sunday in October until the last Saturday in November, but at any time of year the museum inside the course complex at 704 Central Avenue (001 502 637 7097; www.derbymuseum.org ) is worth a visit. It opens 8am-5pm Monday-Saturday (from 9am 1 December-14 March), from 11am on Sunday. Admission is $10 (£5.25). For an excellent tour of the course itself, go into Door 17, where volunteers such as Woody Zorn show visitors the paddock, the winners' enclosure and the room from which the Queen watched the Derby when she went to Churchill Downs last year. Tours are free, but tips are welcome.

Where can I stay?

Choose from historic boutique hotels such as Lexington's Gratz Park Inn at 120 W Second Street (001 859 231 1777; www.gratzparkinn.com ; bed and continental breakfast from $191/£101 double), to lodge or cottage accommodation in any of Kentucky's 17 state resort parks. For a particularly peaceful night's sleep, book a room at the Inn at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsbury (001 800 734 5611; www.shakervillageky.org ).

The Village, 26 miles south-west of Lexington, is one of central Kentucky's most interesting attractions, a collection of buildings that were part of a Shaker community that flourished until 1910. These have now been restored, and some offer simple but extremely comfortable rooms furnished in traditional, uncluttered Shaker style, albeit with modern bathrooms and television. Rooms start at $93.50 (£49); breakfast is an extra $9.25 (£4.85). The village opens to visitors 10.30am-5pm daily, admission $14 (£7.40).

Another unusual place to stay is Jailer's Inn at 111 West Stephen Foster Avenue in Bardstown (001 502 348 5551; www.jailersinn.com ). As the town's prison, it had provided accommodation for years; now, as a B&B, it attracts more willing inmates who can enjoy a level of comfort that earlier inhabitants could only dream of. Lisa Peebles runs the place and provides a copious home-cooked breakfast, before conducting a tour of the inn's less comfortable areas. Rooms – including the Jail Cell, which contains two original prison bunks – are available from $88 (£46).

Alternatively, houseboats, which can usually be booked for three or four nights, are available for hire on several of Kentucky's lakes. Among the firms operating on Lake Cumberland in the south of the state is State Dock (001 888 782 8336; www.statedock.com ), in Jamestown.

Must I eat fried chicken?

No – although fried chicken and fried catfish are both mainstays of any Kentucky menu. The original KFC restaurant, founded by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1932, is still in business on Highway 25 East, outside Corbin u o (001 606 528 2163; www.chickenfestival.com). It opens daily 10am-10pm. Sanders could be described as the first celebrity chef, although few now would regard his signature dish as the mark of fine dining. He moved to Corbin to run a gas station, but hit hard times in the Depression, he turned his love of cooking into a professional sideline and began selling food.

Barbecues are popular in the west of the state, although the Kentucky version has little in common with ours ("we call that grilling," say the locals dismissively). A Kentucky barbecue involves copious amounts of meat: ribs, pork loin, delicious shreds known as pulled pork, chicken, and, around the Owensboro area, mutton. This is all cooked in an indoor pit, often some 20ft deep, which is filled with hickory logs. The meat is gently cooked overnight until it melts in the mouth.

The best-known barbecue restaurant is in Owensboro. The Moonlite at 2840 West Parrish Avenue (001 270 684 8143; www.moonlite.com ) serves an eat-all-you-can buffet, consisting of various meats, a salad bar and mouth-watering selection of desserts from $9 (£4.75), half price for children aged three-10.

Anyone who likes the occasional tipple with their meals may need to pay attention to where, in geographical terms, they choose to eat: some parts of Kentucky are dry. The state government publishes a "WetDry" map on its website (www.abc.ky.gov ), which shows, somewhat perversely, that Christian County is "wet" while Bourbon County is "dry".

So prohibition is still alive and well?

Not exactly. To an outsider, it might seem as if Kentucky has a contradictory attitude towards drink, since it is the home of America's only major spirit, bourbon whiskey.

The centre of the Bourbon industry is Bardstown, a charming little place built in the 18th century; many of its original buildings are still intact. Three times daily except Monday, starting from Old Courthouse Square, a restored trolley takes visitors on a guided tour of the highlights, which include My Old Kentucky Home, the brick building that was the inspiration for the state's theme tune.

The tour stops at the Bourbon Heritage Center for an overview of the bourbon industry and an informative tasting. Located at 1311 Gilkey Run Road (001 502 337 1000; www.bourbonheritagecenter.com ), the centre is an excellent starting point for anyone planning to explore the Bourbon Trail, a signposted route that connects seven Kentucky distilleries.

Jim Beam, whose White Label is the world's biggest-selling brand of bourbon whiskey, is based in Clermont, and the Beams are regarded as the first family of Bourbon. Visitors to the Jim Beam Outpost at 149 Happy Hollow Road (001 502 543 9877; www.jimbeam.com ) can see a film about the family, and then take a self-guided tour of the extensive grounds. The Outpost opens 9am-4.30pm Monday-Saturday and 1-4pm on Sundays.

Maker's Mark in Loretto (001 270 865 2099; www.makersmark.com ) is a much smaller-scale operation. It is the oldest bourbon distillery in continuous operation, and its trademark is the red wax seal that trickles down from its bottle tops. Here, it is possible to tour the production facilities, before ending up with a tasting and the opportunity to buy a bottle of bourbon and dip it in wax. Tours of the distillery take place hourly from 10.30am to 3.30pm Monday-Saturday; 1.30-3.30pm on Sundays from March-December.

I think it's time to clear my head...

Parks are an important feature of life in this very rural state: there are 17 resort parks (www.parks.ky.gov ) – places such as Natural Bridge or Cumberland Falls, whose facilities include dining, lodging and, often, swimming pools and golf courses – as well as 22 recreation parks such as the Land Between the Lakes (001 270 924 2000; www.lbl.org ).

This magnificent wooded area is contained between two man-made expanses of water, Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. Within a long peninsula, which stretches down into Tennessee, are ponds, picnic areas and plenty of hiking trails.

In spring, this is wonderful country for anyone interested in wild flowers, and there are excellent opportunities for birdwatching. In the middle is an elk and bison prairie; for a fee of $5 (£2.60) per car, motorists can drive around a loop in the hope – usually fulfilled – of spotting some of the 33 elk and 46 bison currently resident. Further north is Nature Place, a sanctuary that cares for animals unable to survive in the wild, often through injury. These include red wolves, coyotes, bobcats and wild turkeys.

The Land Between the Lakes remains uncommercialised: there are no food outlets or hotels (although camping is allowed) and nowhere to buy petrol.

One of Kentucky's most remarkable natural attractions is Mammoth Cave National Park (001 270 758 2180; www.nps.gov/maca ), which contains the longest cave system in the world, with 365 mapped miles under a park that covers 53,000 acres. There is lots to enjoy above ground, from hiking to horse-riding, but the underground tours are unmissable.

Visitors can choose how long they want to spend underground and what distance they want to cover. Shortest is the Mammoth Passage Tour, which lasts 75 minutes and costs $5 (£2.60). The Rotunda, a huge space like a vast auditorium, is included in this tour, which introduces visitors to the earliest part of the cave network to be discovered, back in 1798.

What about some entertainment?

In the 1950s, Bill Monroe had a band he called The Blue Grass Boys, named in honour of their home state. The music they played was greatly admired and much-copied, and became known as bluegrass. It now has a huge worldwide following and Monroe became known as the father of bluegrass music.

The International Bluegrass Music Museum at 207 East Second Street in Owensboro (001 270 926 7891; www.bluegrass-museum.org ) brings the music alive, with a series of informative exhibits and accompanying soundtrack.

The banjos, fiddles, guitars and mandolins used in bluegrass were brought to America by Irish and Spanish immigrants as well as African slaves, and each group contributed to its distinctive sound; one of the museum's staff will be happy to play each instrument for groups of five or more visitors.

The museum opens Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 1-4pm; admission costs $5 (£2.65). There are regular Thursday night jam-sessions at the museum, and in June a three-day festival is held beside the Ohio river. This year it takes place from 26-28 June, and tickets are available from $20/£10.50 ( www.riverofmusic.org ).

How do I reach Kentucky?

Non-stop flights are operated daily by Delta (0845 600 0950; www.delta.com ) from Gatwick to Cincinnati; although this city is in Ohio, the airport that bears its name is actually located in northern Kentucky.

You can also reach Cincinnati, or the state's other main airport, Lexington, through a variety of gateways including Atlanta (Delta), Charlotte (US Airways), Chicago (American), Detroit (Northwest), Newark (Continental) and Washington DC (United).

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State Lines: Kentucky

Population: Four million

Area: five times the size of Wales

Capital: Frankfort

Date in Union: 1 June, 1792 Flower Goldenrod

Motto: United we stand, divided we fall

Nickname: Bluegrass State

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Riding along in my automobile...

Beside exit 28 of the I-65 highway is a striking building with a yellow dome and red spire: this is the National Corvette Museum (001 270 781 7973; www.corvettemuseum.com ), a secular temple to a car that became the embodiment of the American dream.

The first Corvette was unveiled in 1953. Since then, it has never lost its appeal. There are plenty of cars on show, and enough memorabilia, display panels and photographs to satisfy the most enthusiastic of sports-car fans; but even the casual visitor cannot fail to be impressed by the sheer beauty of the design. All that is missing is the opportunity for a test drive. No substitute, but fun to accept all the same, is the invitation, issued periodically over the loudspeakers, for visitors to sit behind the wheel of one of the cars.

The National Corvette Museum is at 350 Corvette Drive in Bowling Green. It opens 8am-5pm daily, and admission costs $8 (£4.20).

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It's not just music and horses

Paducah was a town in decay until the US Artists' Relocation Programme offered advantageous terms for artists to buy its buildings and convert them into studios. The result is an attractive district adjoining the downtown and known as Lower Town, where visitors can see artists at work. The main landmark – if only for its giant stainless-steel giraffe – is the Mentor House Gallery (below) at 332 North 6th Street (001 270 442 1635; www.mentorhousegallery.com ). Opposite, at number 335, the Egg and I (001 270 443 6323; www.eggandiarts.com ) is run by Carol Gabany, who carves eggs into works of art. She also offers B&B accommodation, with a spacious suite priced from $101 (£53). Breakfast is served across the road at Etcetera, where artists congregate around 8am every morning for bagels, muffins, coffee and a chat.