amilies moved west of the Appalachian Mountains beginning in the mid to late 1700s. The fertile soil in this newly settled region produced surplus crops of corn, rye, barley, and wheat. Crystal clear streams were perfect for mashing. Using distilling skills handed down from generation to generation, folks quickly took to producing whiskey using these plentiful ingredients. Whiskey was used as tender to barter with the Native Americans and sold to businessmen from the east and south.

During the mid 1800s, whiskey producers were cropping up all over the Tennessee and Kentucky region. When the railroads were completed, whiskey production overtook the business of grain production. Prior to the railroad’s completion, bourbon was shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Now it could be shipped to the eastern port cities, thereby increasing the market.

As with any industry in a growth phase, individuals would leave one distillery to start their own, recipes were stolen, copied, or purchased, and families would branch out with several different endeavors hoping to capture more market share. This created a plethora of whiskey distilleries, concentrated in a relatively small area of our country.