It’s not just beer cheese and bicycles in Winchester (the Beer Cheese Capital of the World) and London (the Cycling Capital of Kentucky). In these two Kentucky Capitals Quest destinations it’s plenty of Boone, too — Daniel Boone, that is.
Photo Courtesy of Waterfront Grill
More than 150 years before two cousins combined beer and cheese at a Winchester restaurant in the 1930s, issuing forth the Birthplace of Beer Cheese in the process, Daniel Boone was here, exploring the area and settling in at his fort at Boonesborough. (The original fort site may be toured at Fort Boonesboro State Park). And he had his family with him, including beloved daughter, Jemima, who became the subject of a bizarre kidnapping.
In 1776, 14-year-old Jemima and her two gal pals, sisters Betsey and Fanny Callaway, left the fort for a day of canoeing. The three young girls paddled along the Kentucky River and eventually drifted near the spot of present-day Waterfront Grill. That’s when they were captured by a band of Shawnee (possibly to be used as bargaining chips to forestall native lands from being seized) and taken north.
It was Daniel Boone to the rescue! He and a small party gave chase and rescued the three girls (unharmed) two days later. The event inspired author James Fenimore Cooper to write a fictionalized account of the kidnapping in his 1826 novel, The Last of the Mohicans, which in turned spawned the 1992 movie of the same name.
Cheese lovers blazing their way along the Beer Cheese Trail in the Beer Cheese Capital of the World will find a historical marker at the kidnapping site on Athens-Boonesboro Road. And at the Waterfront Grill? The restaurant’s signature in-house beer cheese as well as beer cheeseburgers and beer cheese grilled cheese sandwiches. The restaurant also offers a side of beer cheese for any of its menu items.
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Photo Courtesy of London-Lauren County Tourist Commission
Find another Daniel Boone connection in London – the Cycling Capital of Kentucky along the Daniel Boone Bike Route (US 21). This north/south (or vice versa) route stretches from Atlanta, Georgia to Cleveland, Ohio—much of it following Boone Trace. Also known as “that little road,” this is the trail Kentucky’s favorite frontier explorer blazed, along with his party of 30 “axemen,” as they made their way from North Carolina, through the Cumberland Gap and onward to setting up camp at Fort Boonesborough south of Winchester, KY.
The route traverses 10 Kentucky counties, including Laurel County, home of London and its substantial network of cycling trails. Cyclists roll into this Kentucky Capitals Quest destination via the Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park.
Photo Courtesy of London-Laurel County Historical Society
Named for the Wilderness Road, which developed from Boone Trace and had expanded to accommodate wagon travel by the 1790s, this nearly 900-acre park offers a peek into Kentucky’s pioneer heritage. Explore it through pioneer relics at the Mountain Life Museum, in the working stones of McHargue’s Mill, a reproduction gristmill, and along two historic hiking trails. Follow in the footsteps of the more than 200,000 settlers who walked these trails—segments of both the Wilderness Road and Boone Trace—in the late 1700s.
The bike route continues through downtown London and, on the town’s outskirts, along scenic rural roads that overlap in several places London’s Redbud Ride, considered the “Best Century Ride in America.” (Century rides are 100 miles in distance and generally rated for all abilities, from newbies to seasoned cyclists.)
You might spy a stone monument or two, placed along the Boone Trace route in 1942 to commemorate Laurel County’s celebration of Kentucky’s Sesquicentennial. Seven stones were erected on Boone Trace, each indicating, according to the June 4, 1942 edition of The Sentinel-Echo, “the years in which the trail was blazed and the year in which it was to give way to a new toll ‘waggon road’ built by the infant State of Kentucky.”
Whether in London or Winchester, retrace Daniel Boone’s footsteps to adventure, enjoying a Kentucky delicacy crafted of beer cheese or a picturesque ride recalling Kentucky’s pioneering past.