Stamping Ground, Kentucky

[Music] hello I'm Scott boarders and welcome to another edition of history in your own backyard and today we find ourselves in beautiful stamping ground Kentucky and joining me is done buck pink reseed on how are you doing today I'm great thanks for having us out here today now Don the first thing one might notice about this town is it has a little bit of an unusual name tell us a little bit about the name stamping ground well stamping ground is unique it's the only town in the world named stamping ground and what's beautiful about it is it's because of the Buffalo this area here this spring is a mineral spring and the Buffalo would come from everywhere to boat stamping ground kentucky and they would drink from this spring and the way we got our name is because of Buffalo impatient wanting their chance to drink because somebody was ahead of them kind of like a big-box store you know they won't open another register so the Buffalo roll their eyes and stomp their feet and the Buffalo would move away thinking the herd was moving and then they would get another drink that's how that would happen so they would kind of cycle through and there was just a lot of impatient Buffalo that gave us our name now but we find ourselves right in front of what we believe to be a Buffalo Trace now tell me a little bit about what we're looking at here well you have to use your imagination but imagine millions of Buffalo shoulder-to-shoulder migrating from if you seen one cowboy in Indian movie you know what I'm talking about Buffalo great mobs of Buffalo walking right down through this area here and down beyond past those trees now a few years ago somebody built a lake and a dam over there so the grounds disturbed but if you look carefully off in the distance you can see the water tower a stamping ground and if you look carefully you can see how that trail that trace meanders left-right right-left all the way to toward stamping ground this is the old Buffalo Trace [Applause] my mother's Buffalo Trace what you're looking for is a low depression wide depression across the landscape deep across the landscape if you look past us in this camera frame you can see the remnants of that trace now I believe you told us they kind of nicknamed the trail out here trail of the arm tell me a little bit about that okay so let's see if I can do this Indian name its Alonza oh la miel and that means the trail of the armed because the Buffalo were so plentiful through here no one had to go hunting Buffalo it was widely known where they were where they were going to be and as they migrated through this area so everybody who came to this trail came dready to either harvest meat or rob someone or to pillage or to fight a war the Shawnee were the main nation of this part of the Kentucky the name Kentucky means the Meadowlands and if you look at these rolling hills around us you can see exactly how they give them from the Buffalo knocked off all the sharp edges and now we have this growing beautiful bluegrass country now this town has gone through several things over the last few decades so tell us a little bit about all the things this town has gone through well we've burned down three times and we had a tornado march right up Main Street you can't imagine the devastation to this town wiped out everything on Main Street except just a few few buildings I mean some buildings weren't even touched and this town just doesn't give up we're here we're not going anywhere it's a great little town tell us this town actually is well known for its distillery as well tell us a little bit about the background of that okay well Buffalo Springs distillery started in the 1800's and operated for over a hundred years right over there they use water from this spring to make their whiskey under two labels Buffalo Springs and boots and saddles and it wasn't until 1960 that they closed I think that's right I hope that's right and and the this town prospered finally they had to tear the thing down it they closed it out and it just fell into Rea the limestone begin to disintegrate the towers fell all that stuff and so they the the city decided to take it down but if you drive down Main Street we have one remnant left it's a little building down here a beautiful building and one spring house just a little bit further down the road you can see them right off a Main Street alright now we've talked a little bit about this town tell me one thing if I'm a tourist coming in to visit this town tell me one thing you'd like me to know about either the history of the town or how it got here are just something interesting that I could go spread with other people well first of all this park is a great place to come and stand your ground but there's a lot of things to do one of the best things you can do in stamping Renton is just stop and go into the poor man's diner and sit down and have a conversation with the locals or go to the local repair shop up here next to the gas station and walk in there and talk to the guys you're going to get a treat because these folks have no pretense they love people and they want to be entertaining they liked it for you to be here let me ask you this I know that some of the buildings around here are of some historical significance tell me a little about the wood I've heard about the jailhouse and the doctor's office and those types of things well okay we have a old jailhouse here we don't use it anymore but it was a well what do you do with jailhouse if you get out of line and stand back round Kentucky you get to go to jail house we also have a very famous doctor and dr. Mason was famous during the influenza pandemic he literally saved thousands of people's lives we keep his doctor's office over there still there one room place just for him got plaque on the wall come by and see what we're proud of that he was an actual hero goes and and Jesse James and mom and dad lived right here in stamping ground so he's got a little history here tell me a little bit about that now well he used to come back here his daddy was a preacher went to college over at Centre College over here in Georgetown Kentucky then he went out to San Missouri and started to Bible College out there and but Jesse and his gang kept coming back here you know they never did find that one and a half million dollars worth of antique watches and gold and stuff that he stole and they kept coming back here even though no family was here no girlfriend was here somewhere around here there's a treasure trove I just know it we certainly am too may have to extend our stages to do a little awning for it go look I actually every little sinkhole I find I have a peek now as I look around town as we've been here today I see all these people in these really fancy outfits riding their bicycles so what's going on in stamping ground today well this is the horsie 100 every year on this weekend we have thousands of bicycles coming through town because this is a beautiful Drive they come down the companies run which is 1869 which is the road I live on they peddle their bicycles down here right up to 27 going back to Georgetown it's part of the horsey 100 this is a big event we love to have them we have refreshments for them and food and as you drive through stamping ground on any day you're going to find bicycles tied to fence post gates signposts lights we we like our bicycling community this is a beautiful tourist route for bicyclists and I don't mean just a speedo bound I mean families can ride their bicycles through the hills are gentle and the roads are beautiful and it's just like something you would see in a movie well I definitely appreciate you spending some time in your beautiful town with us today thank you so much for some of the basic knowledge it was a pleasure meeting you again Don buck P Creasy I'm Scott borders for history in your own backyard don't forget as you travel around travel slowly and stop often come and see us in stamping ground [Music] you [Music] II

Channel: History in Your Own Backyard

Views: 21,900

Rating: 4.9495268 out of 5

Keywords: Kentucky, Scott County, Stamping Ground, Buffalo, Bison, History, Historic

Id: yd7GYny6XHY

Length: 9min 38sec (578 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2017