Aerial.America.S05E03.Kentucky
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00:00It's where the horses run a little faster, the bourbon tastes a little better, and the
00:11nostalgia runs a little deeper.
00:14Kentucky.
00:15A land that's been hailed as a paradise for centuries, a place where legendary pioneer
00:22Daniel Boo was first awed by the sweeping beauty of its valleys, and forged a wilderness
00:28trail that gave hope to the thousands who settled the American West.
00:35It was from one Appalachian Valley that a coal miner's daughter went on to become a
00:39country music superstar, leaving behind a land now transformed by giant machines that
00:45carve off entire mountains above to get to treasure below.
00:49It's a state that tried to stay out of a war, but became so divided that fathers fought
00:56their sons, and brothers fought each other.
01:00Area of Kentucky tells the rich stories of America's 15th state, a place where the
01:06bluegrass still grows, an American classic still races down back roads, and where tens
01:13of thousands come to try and beat the odds during the fastest two minutes in sports.
01:19All this, right here, in Kentucky.
01:56It's easy to tell when spring finally arrives in Kentucky.
02:06Sunbursts of canola flowers blanket the fields, and colorful eastern redbuds signal the start
02:12of a prosperous growing season.
02:17Native Americans found the perfect hunting grounds here.
02:20There were lush forests filled with deer and beaver, and meadows of wild grass, grass that
02:27may have inspired the state's name.
02:30The Iroquoian word for meadowland is Kentucky.
02:35But by the late 18th century, European settlers also had their eyes on Kentucky's riches.
02:42As the eastern colonies grew more and more crowded, many there dreamed of having a new
02:47piece of this paradise to the west.
02:49But the first who tried to venture here quickly found out that settling Kentucky wasn't going
02:55to be easy.
03:03In 1774, a small group from Pennsylvania managed to paddle into Kentucky.
03:10They named their new settlement Harrodstown, after the expedition's leader, James Harrod.
03:15They built a fort for their protection, and started clearing land to farm.
03:20But frequent conflicts with Native Americans forced the settlers to hunker down inside
03:25the fort.
03:26Men, women, children, and livestock all lived side by side.
03:32Smoke from cooking fires filled the air, and diseases spread like wildfire as the Shawnee
03:38attacked the settlers again and again.
03:42In a year of their arrival, they were forced to abandon Harrodstown and leave Kentucky.
03:53But despite that initial failure, the promise of Kentucky's riches proved impossible for
03:58others to resist.
04:01One of those would become an American legend, a former soldier and explorer named Daniel
04:07Boone.
04:08Boone first arrived in Kentucky on a hunting trip in 1767.
04:14One day, after setting up camp, he climbed high on a rocky ledge, some say it was this
04:19one, to take in a view of Kentucky's untouched landscape.
04:23Today, many continue to follow in Boone's footsteps, clambering up to rocks like these
04:28in Pilot Knob Nature Preserve to look out over a stretch of Kentucky that has remained
04:33virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.
04:43To the south, the wild land that stretches out below has been named the Daniel Boone
04:48National Forest.
04:50It covers more than a thousand square miles of rugged land along the Appalachian foothills.
04:55Winding through this wilderness is the Cumberland River, and anyone who paddles it upstream
05:01will come face-to-face with one of Kentucky's great natural treasures, the raging waters
05:10of Cumberland Falls.
05:12It plunges 70 feet in an impressive torrent that draws thousands every year.
05:19And rising above the treeline is another Kentucky landmark, a stunning sandstone formation known
05:28as the Natural Arch.
05:33When Boone's initial hunting trip in Kentucky was over, he returned to his family in North
05:41Carolina, laden down with hundreds of pelts and tales about his travels in a new, western
05:47land.
05:49Soon, more and more settlers from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia were eager to claim
05:55a slice of this new paradise.
05:59The problem was, there was no real way for large numbers of people to get there.
06:03Traveling through the Alleghenies on foot like Boone had was one thing, but navigating
06:08this terrain with carts and carriages weighed down with people, supplies, and tools was
06:12almost beyond imagination.
06:15That's because an impressive barrier stood in their way.
06:19In the early 18th century, the Allegheny Mountains, which stretch from northern Pennsylvania to
06:27southern Virginia, were the biggest obstacles to settlers trying to reach Kentucky and the
06:32West.
06:33But in 1750, an explorer named Dr. Thomas Walker discovered a narrow passageway through
06:39the forbidding Alleghenies, a notch between two mountains that's now known as the Cumberland
06:45Gap.
06:46Today, it lies near where the borders of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia all meet.
06:55In 1775, a wealthy businessman named Richard Henderson hired Daniel Boone to forge a trail
07:01through the Cumberland Gap.
07:06Henderson's plan was actually to create his own colony in Kentucky, which he wanted to
07:10name Transylvania.
07:11Boone and his men soon arrived here at the Cumberland Gap, axes in hand.
07:18They started hacking their way across the mountains, creating a path that would later
07:22be known as the Wilderness Road.
07:31That path still exists today for those wanting to retrace the journey that thousands of early
07:35settlers first took to reach Kentucky.
07:41After two weeks, Boone and his men finally made it to the other side of the mountains
07:46and chose a spot for a new settlement.
07:49They called it Boonesboro.
07:51Today, a reconstructed fort stands on the same site.
07:55Soon, hundreds of pioneers were pouring through the Cumberland Gap, heading up the Wilderness
08:01Road and arriving in this frontier outpost.
08:10Boone stayed on to protect the settlers from Indian attacks, but one day while hunting,
08:15he himself was captured by members of the Shawnee.
08:18Killed by the tribe's chief blackfish, Boone quickly discovered that a Shawnee force was
08:23planning to attack the Boonesboro settlers.
08:27Winter turned to spring, and Boone was unable to warn his companions.
08:32Finally, in June, as the Shawnee made their final preparations to lay siege to the fort,
08:38Boone made a daring escape.
08:41Legend has it he crossed 160 miles of near-impassable wilderness in just four days to reach Boonesboro
08:48before the Shawnee.
08:51When the Shawnee finally did attack, the settlers were well-prepared and armed.
08:57For ten days, they held their ground until the Shawnee finally gave up and retreated.
09:09Boone's real-life exploits were quickly turned into fiction by newspapers and magazines in
09:13America and England.
09:16In print, he became a larger-than-life hero of the American frontier, leaping off cliffs
09:21in his coonskin cap to escape capture by Native tribes and leading hopeful pioneers through
09:26dark forests to the light-filled bounty of the West.
09:34With me, the world has taken great liberties, he later said, and I have been but a common
09:39man.
09:40But Boone was a hero to many of the settlers who flooded into Kentucky on the trail that
09:45they had first forged.
09:47These pioneers, in turn, carved their own new communities out of the wilderness.
09:53Communities that might have looked a lot like this one.
09:57This village, called Mountain Homeplace, offers a glimpse of what life was like for early
10:01Kentucky settlers.
10:05There's a simple white church, a school, and houses and barns to protect people and livestock.
10:12Building a community like this from scratch was back-breaking work.
10:16Settlers had to cut down whole swaths of forest, clear the earth of boulders to make fields,
10:21and saw trees into boards, beams, and shingles to build houses and barns.
10:27This kind of work was happening all across the American frontier.
10:31But Kentucky settlers would discover that their labors brought special rewards.
10:36Under the grass in which their cows and sheep grazed lay an ancient geological treasure
10:41that still provides Kentucky with amazing riches to this day.
10:52Fifty miles south of Louisville, Kentucky, stands one of the most secure buildings on
10:57earth.
11:00Inside is more than 147 million ounces of gold, worth close to $200 billion.
11:08This is Fort Knox.
11:10With granite walls four feet thick and a 22-ton blast-proof door, Fort Knox is the
11:16most secure vault in the world.
11:19It's not a good idea to get too close, even from the air.
11:24If the guards in its towers need backup, there are 30,000 soldiers and 300 tanks standing
11:29ready at the army base next door.
11:37Only one man has ever tried to break into Fort Knox.
11:40His name was Goldfinger, the villain from the 1964 James Bond film.
11:46He devised an elaborate plan to detonate a nuclear device and liquefy Fort Knox's gold.
11:52The filmmakers weren't given access to the vault, but they were allowed to film exterior
11:57shots from the air.
12:03The gold in Fort Knox may be a national treasure worth billions, but for many of those who
12:07live here in Kentucky, their most prized resource lies right beneath their feet.
12:14It was discovered by settlers back in the early 19th century.
12:18It turns out there was a secret ingredient in Kentucky's soil that dates back more than
12:23300 million years.
12:26Once the southeastern United States, including the area that's now Kentucky, was covered
12:31by a shallow sea.
12:34For millennia, shells from billions of sea creatures accumulated on the ocean floor,
12:39hundreds of feet thick, creating a bed of calcium-rich limestone.
12:46When the waters finally retreated, this limestone formation was covered by earth and still exists
12:52today, hidden beneath Kentucky's forests and fields.
12:56But there is a place where this limestone labyrinth can be explored, here at Mammoth
13:01Cave National Park.
13:05Under these trees is the longest known cave system in the world, more than 350 miles of
13:11caverns that lie under 80 square miles of Kentucky.
13:15It's now a United Nations World Heritage Site.
13:29These calcium-rich limestone formations beneath the ground provide something very important
13:34to animals and people on the surface.
13:38Thereby, the grass that grows here is full of nutrients and helps build sturdy bones
13:43in the animals that graze in Kentucky's fields.
13:48This superfood is known as Kentucky bluegrass, even though it's actually deep green.
13:54It was named for its blue flowers that emerge in spring.
13:59Thanks to its healthy soil, Kentucky is the perfect place to raise a racehorse.
14:05At Calumet Farm in Lexington, thoroughbreds feast on bluegrass to their heart's content.
14:11Distinguished by its miles of crisp white fencing, this legendary stable was founded
14:16at the turn of the century by a baking powder magnate, whose family raised some of the 20th
14:21century's most fabled racehorses.
14:25Triple crown champions Whirl-A-Way and Citation both wore the devil red and blue silks of
14:30Calumet, and eight other Kentucky Derby winners once grazed these fields.
14:42It's not by chance that Calumet and its legendary horses are located here, just outside Lexington,
14:48a city known as the horse capital of the world.
14:52First established in 1775, it was named in honor of the First Battle of the Revolutionary
14:57War in Lexington, Massachusetts.
15:02In the beginning, this was no more than a rough and tumble outpost on what was then
15:06America's western frontier.
15:09But that quickly changed as settlers flooded into Kentucky.
15:13Within 30 years, mansions lined Lexington's streets, and the city was known as the Athens
15:18of the West.
15:19But the story of how Lexington became America's horse racing capital begins downtown.
15:27This is a monument to the man who helped organize Kentucky's very first horse race, statesman
15:33Henry Clay.
15:35In 1787, Clay and a few others decided to sponsor a race of horses right through Lexington's
15:41streets.
15:42Many here consider this predecessor to modern drag racing a nuisance, and it was later banned
15:47from town limits.
15:55At the time of Clay's first race, Kentucky was still just a judicial district of Virginia
16:00and was not yet its own state.
16:02Matters of law and order were settled here, in nearby Danville, in the district courthouse.
16:08Starting in 1785, the courthouse became the meeting place for delegates working to hash
16:12out a constitution for a new state.
16:16In 1792, that constitution was ready, and Kentucky was born as America's 15th state.
16:32Just two years later, the state of Kentucky had its very first race course.
16:37It lay here on this estate south of Lexington, built by William Whitley, a frontiersman famous
16:43for his clashes with Kentucky's native tribes.
16:47He designed his home with walls two feet thick and windows high above the ground to thwart
16:52Indian attacks.
16:54This also made the house a safe and popular meeting spot for early settlers.
16:58He even put his initials over his front door, WW.
17:03But it was Whitley's racetrack that would make horse racing in America different.
17:10He wasn't a fan of British customs, so he decided that horses on his track would race
17:17counterclockwise, against European tradition.
17:21All race courses in America have run counterclockwise ever since.
17:32Just as they do here, at Keeneland Racecourse in Versailles.
17:37If this grandstand looks familiar, it's because the 2003 hit movie, Seabiscuit, was filmed
17:45here at Keeneland.
17:48Every morning all year, jockeys breeze down the stretch here, training themselves and
17:53their powerful thoroughbreds for the state's richest races.
17:58Like the Bluegrass Stakes, which takes place at Keeneland every April with a purse of $750,000.
18:05But even these big winnings don't compare to the sums of money spent buying horses at
18:10Keeneland's auction pavilion.
18:13Four times a year, buyers from around the world come to bid on Kentucky's fastest thoroughbreds.
18:19In just five days in January 2013, 1,105 horses sold here for over $45 million.
18:27All who bid are betting on a dream, a dream with poor odds of coming true.
18:34Only about 20 of the 26,000 thoroughbreds born each year in America will make it to
18:39the Kentucky Derby.
18:41The most sought after animals sell for millions of dollars.
18:45But in 2006, one winning bidder at Keeneland struck gold with a pregnant mare named Supercharger,
18:52which he bought for $160,000.
18:56Her new home, Windstar Farm, lay just down the road in Versailles.
19:01The next year, Supercharger gave birth to a foal named Super Saver.
19:07Today, that foal is one of Kentucky's most prized racehorses.
19:14In 2010, the then three-year-old thoroughbred made this farm proud when he won the Kentucky
19:20Derby.
19:21In the final turn on a muddy track, he charged up the rail, pulled away from the pack, and
19:26galloped under the wire for the win.
19:29Today, this stallion has entered a new phase of his career as a world-class stud, breeding
19:34about 130 mares per year and earning as much as $20,000 per foal.
19:41Money that the farm plows right back into its horses.
19:44Mares and foals get royal treatment here in Kentucky, and the most promising young racehorses
19:49are tested every morning.
19:52Called breezing, this daily routine helps build lung capacity in promising horses and
19:57helps jockeys train horses to respond to subtle cues.
20:00First, trainers trot twice around the track, then they turn and gallop for one final loop.
20:06It gets the horse's heart pumping to help trainers determine how fast it can recover
20:11after a sprint, all part of the meticulously managed conditioning routine required to train
20:16these four-legged athletes for real competition.
20:19For many here in the rolling hills of Woodford County, working with racehorses day in and
20:24day out has been a way of life for generations.
20:30Just as mining has for those living in Kentucky's hills.
20:35After the Civil War, Kentucky's coal-rich hills exploded with life as trains and factories
20:40across America demanded more and more coal to run.
20:44Across Kentucky, men and machines raced to scrape this fossil fuel out of the ground.
20:50They worked in giant mines, like this one, the Blue Heron.
20:55It operated right up until 1962, belching dust as it dumped coal into railroad cars
21:01below, burning the mining company that owned it millions.
21:06But life was tough for the miners who worked these hills.
21:09Coal barons set up their own small towns.
21:13This one was named Barthelkamp.
21:16Miners and their families had everything they needed, housing, groceries, a barber, and
21:20even doctors, provided by the company they worked for, but at a steep price.
21:26With each expense the miner paid, he handed a piece of his paycheck right back to the
21:31mining company, until nearly everything he earned fell back into the company's coffers.
21:39The hardship of a coal miner's family inspired one Kentucky woman to make it an anthem of
21:44country pride.
21:46Music star Loretta Lynn grew up in this narrow valley known as Butcher Hollow, where her
21:51childhood home still stands.
21:53In her 1970s single, Coal Miner's Daughter, Lynn sang about how her family may not have
21:59had much money, but had all the love they needed.
22:03The song was a huge hit, and inspired the 1980 movie starring Sissy Spacek, in an Oscar
22:08winning performance.
22:10Both the song and film helped humanize the plight of coal miners everywhere.
22:17Loretta Lynn's home is one of several stops along a route known as the Country Music Highway.
22:22It winds through the Green Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, and was named as a tribute to local
22:27superstars like Dwight Yoakam, Patti Lovelace, and Billy Ray Cyrus.
22:34It leads to Ashland, where two of the biggest recording artists in country music history
22:39had their humble beginnings.
22:42Before she was a star, Naomi Judd played music at Ashland's Baptist Church.
22:46At 18, she gave birth to her daughter Winona, here at King's Daughters Medical Center.
22:53After years of struggling, Winona and her single mom hit it big, catapulting to fame
22:58as two of the top selling country artists in history.
23:02Like many before them, the Judds sang of their nostalgia for their old Kentucky home.
23:07The state's beauty has inspired many ballads.
23:22But some fear that Kentucky's beauty is under threat.
23:27It's possible to soar through valleys like this one without realizing what's happening above.
23:34But if you skin the treetops, you'll come face to face with one of the largest industrial
23:40operations in the world, a mining technique that's been described as strip mining on steroids.
23:50It's the start of a new shift for a series of giant earth-moving machines and their operators.
23:57They're on their way to carve the entire top off an Appalachian mountain.
24:04It's a process known as mountaintop removal.
24:11That's because mining companies literally lop off entire mountaintops to get to rich seams of coal below.
24:20Before they can start, loggers move in to strip the mountain of trees.
24:27After explosives loosen the rock, bulldozers start carving away the top of the mountain itself.
24:35In the air, it looks like a giant sandbox, except every one of these machines is supersized.
24:45The Appalachian mountains are more than 300 million years old.
24:49Now, these three bulldozers alone can chew their way through an entire peak in just a few days.
24:57They remove the earth so that valuable seams of coal can be mined from above.
25:02Instead of digging underground tunnels to get that coal out of the mountain.
25:07Understanding how this modern mining technique works is best done from the air.
25:13All the earth dug up by these three dozers has to go somewhere.
25:17First, it's loaded scoop by scoop into CAT 797s, one of the biggest dump trucks in the world.
25:24Each one costs more than $5 million and can carry a payload of 380 tons.
25:31One after another, these mega machines dump the earth carved from the mountain into nearby valleys.
25:42Watching mountaintop removal in action, it's easy to understand why this mining technique is so controversial.
25:50The Kentucky miners who work these machines can earn a good living.
25:55Environmentalists and many nearby communities claim that this extreme type of mining is devastating ecosystems
26:02and polluting nearby rivers and streams.
26:06Mining companies claim they restore the mountains when they're done,
26:10shaping them into terraces and then covering them with grass to look natural.
26:15Some former mountaintop removal sites are even used to graze cattle.
26:20When all is said and done, the ancient peaks that once stood here are gone forever.
26:30To the north of Kentucky's coal-rich hills, the Ohio River flows along the state's border with Ohio.
26:36Many of the small towns that line this river date back to the earliest days of settlement,
26:41including one that's been home to a family of famous entertainers.
26:45One of them achieved stardom in Hollywood but never forgot his Kentucky roots.
26:49When his film The Leatherheads was released in 2008,
26:52actor George Clooney organized a special screening here in Maysville.
26:58A red carpet was rolled out in front of the Washington Opera House,
27:02and Clooney and his co-star Renee Zellweger were on hand to greet the sold-out crowd of 300.
27:07There's a good reason that Clooney chose this small town.
27:11Both of his parents were born here, his great-grandfather was the town mayor,
27:15and it's also where his famous aunt, actress and singer Rosemary Clooney,
27:20had the premiere of her film The Stars Are Singing in 1953.
27:24She grew up in Maysville, dreaming of all that might lie down the Ohio.
27:29From the porch, the river promised better times coming, she later wrote,
27:33faraway places just around the bend.
27:36George Clooney grew up 16 miles away in the town of Augusta.
27:40His ambitions weren't limited to acting.
27:43After graduation from Augusta High School, he tried out for the nearby Cincinnati Reds,
27:48but never made the team.
27:54One of the faraway places that Rosemary Clooney might well have dreamed of downriver was this one,
28:01Louisville, Kentucky's largest city.
28:05A place that's given birth to plenty of its own legends,
28:08including one who was born in this modest White House,
28:12a boy named Cassius Clay, later known to the world as Muhammad Ali.
28:18Today, an entire building here in Louisville honors the fighter's legacy,
28:22the Muhammad Ali Center.
28:24It was on Louisville streets as a teenager that Cassius was taught to box for self-defense
28:29after having his bicycle stolen.
28:31And it was in Louisville that he had his first professional fight in 1960,
28:36here at Freedom Hall.
28:38His win in the six-round battle against Tunney Hunsaker launched his career.
28:43Twenty years later, crowds were still flocking to Freedom Hall,
28:47where the University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team won two NCAA titles in 1980 and 86.
28:54The team has since moved across town to the KFC Yum Center, which opened in 2010.
29:01Louisville is known for boxing, basketball, and baseball.
29:08Fly over the city, and it's hard not to miss this Louisville icon,
29:12a larger-than-life bat that's been hitting them out of the park for over 120 years.
29:18According to legend, the Louisville Slugger was invented in 1884
29:24when a woodworking apprentice named Bud Hillerick
29:26offered to make a bat for a local ball player named Pete Browning who was in a hitting slump.
29:31Browning immediately started getting hits thanks to his new bat's lightweight and signature shape.
29:37Fans soon nicknamed him the Louisville Slugger,
29:40a name the bat company trademarked just ten years later.
29:46A larger-than-life baseball bat may be one way that Louisville has staked its claim to fame,
29:51but for millions of sports fans around the world, Louisville is known for something else,
29:56an annual event many call the most exciting two minutes in sports.
30:03On the first Saturday of every May, tens of thousands of fans arrive in Louisville, Kentucky,
30:09for one of the most legendary sporting events in the world.
30:13It draws more than 16 million television viewers,
30:17but lasts just two minutes, the Kentucky Derby.
30:22It happens, rain or shine.
30:24This year, 151,000 people have crowded into Churchill Downs,
30:29the historic racetrack that's hosted the Kentucky Derby since 1875.
30:34Two weeks of parties and events lead up to this legendary race.
30:39It began in 1873 when Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. returned to Louisville from Europe,
30:46freshly inspired by European jockey clubs.
30:49He wanted to create something similar in Louisville,
30:52a place that could showcase Kentucky's finest horses.
30:56So he leased 80 acres from his uncles John and Henry Churchill
31:00and named a new racetrack in their honor, Churchill Downs.
31:04With its annual mint juleps, fancy hats, and blanket of red roses for the winning horse,
31:09Churchill Downs has always been a place of time-honored traditions
31:13and iconic architecture.
31:15The soaring twin spires of its grandstand are recognized around the world.
31:20The most prized seats of the track are these, just feet from the finish line.
31:24They sell for thousands of dollars each, but on the infield, it's standing room only.
31:33It's finally race time.
31:36Each jockey parades in front of the grandstand
31:38to give the crowd one last look before they place their wagers.
31:42With more than $131 million in bets riding on this one race,
31:46the slightest change in a horse's or a jockey's behavior could sway the odds.
31:51But on this rainy day, it's truly anybody's race, which is why the air is electric.
32:03As soon as the last horse is in the gate, the race is on.
32:08On the moment they burst out of the gate, pacing is critical.
32:12Thoroughbreds can only maintain their peak speed for a quarter of a mile.
32:16And since this track measures a mile and a quarter,
32:18each jockey has to decide exactly when to unleash his or her horse's speed.
32:23Push too hard early, and a horse will tire too soon.
32:27But wait too long, and it might be too late to pull ahead.
32:31And on a rainy track like this one, it's impossible to predict which horses will perform best.
32:39Just as the jockeys enter the final stretch, a horse named Orb kicks into a new gear,
32:44fights his way up from behind, and closes in on the frontrunner.
32:48A surprise move from the outside that pays off.
32:52Orb is the first to pass the white marker of the finish line, winning the derby.
32:57His time? Two minutes and two seconds.
33:00Almost three seconds shy of Secretariat's 1973 record.
33:04But a victory worthy of a big celebration.
33:07Orb's owner will take in $1.4 million.
33:11Orb's jockey, 28-year-old Joel Rosario, gets a 10% cut.
33:18But it's not only jockeys who earn their fame and fortune here at the Kentucky Derby.
33:23In 1970, a literary journal sent an unknown writer to cover the race.
33:28It would be the beginning of a long and infamous career for Hunter S. Thompson,
33:33father of gonzo journalism and inspiration to daring young writers everywhere.
33:38At the derby, Thompson teamed up with illustrator Ralph Steadman for the first time.
33:43But the two were more interested in the people of the derby than the horses.
33:47It's a fantastic scene, but it's not all that exciting.
33:51It's a fantastic scene, he wrote.
33:54Thousands of people fainting, crying, trampling each other, and fighting with broken whiskey bottles.
34:00After a weekend of their own heavy drinking, Thompson and Steadman became an inseparable team.
34:05They created the cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
34:08which became a major motion picture starring another Kentucky native and friend of Thompson, Johnny Depp.
34:16Hunter S. Thompson's birthplace, the city of Louisville, was first settled in 1778 as a river port.
34:26As trade on the Ohio boomed, the land along the river became more and more valuable.
34:32By 1818, land speculators and the U.S. government had their eyes on a big piece of this land to the west.
34:39The problem was, it was owned by the Chickasaw Indian Nation.
34:43So President James Monroe sent a delegation to try to force the Chickasaw to sell.
34:48One of those delegates, Andrew Jackson, negotiated a price of $300,000 for the land that would be added to the state of Kentucky.
34:57Known as the Jackson Purchase, it was bordered on three sides by rivers.
35:02To the west was the Mississippi, to the north, the Ohio, and to the east, the Tennessee.
35:10Twelve years later, the Chickasaw tribe was forced to relocate to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.
35:16Today, the Tennessee River, which was once a major trading route for the tribe, has been transformed.
35:22A giant hydroelectric dam turned the river into Kentucky Lake.
35:28A second dam on the nearby Cumberland River created Lake Barkley.
35:33The land between the two lakes is now a national recreation area.
35:37And the reservoirs themselves are popular places for boating and fishing.
35:43But not everyone on Lake Barkley is here for a good time.
35:49Especially those doing time here at the Kentucky State Pen.
35:54This may look like a medieval fortress, but it's actually the oldest prison facility in Kentucky.
36:00It was built in 1889.
36:03Locals often call the state penitentiary the Castle on the Cumberland.
36:08It houses Kentucky's only death row.
36:11Its execution chamber was used as recently as 2008.
36:15If this prison's walls could speak, they would have plenty of colorful tales to tell.
36:21That's because the state pen dates back to a time when many of Kentucky's rural communities were ruled by honor and family pride.
36:29And not by law.
36:30A time when feuds on the Kentucky frontier were settled with violence and blood.
36:38Some of these feuds have been the stuff of legend.
36:41Like the one that erupted on Kentucky's border with West Virginia.
36:44Here along the Tug Fork River that divides the states.
36:49Some say it all started in 1878 in a valley like this one.
36:53When Randall McCoy of Pike County accused Floyd Hatfield of West Virginia of stealing one of his hogs.
37:02It set off tensions between the two families that were often fueled by family gatherings and whiskey here in these Appalachian hills.
37:12One argument over a debt of $1.75 led to the killing of a McCoy.
37:17A revenge attack led to three more deaths.
37:20On August 29, 1887, Nat Hatfield wrote a letter warning the McCoys.
37:26We have been told by men from your county that you and your men are fixing to invade this county for the purpose of taking the Hatfield boys.
37:33We have no particular pleasure in hanging dogs, but we know you and have counted the miles and marked the tree.
37:41Finally, on January 1, 1888, the Hatfields took matters into their own hands.
37:47They traveled across the Tug Fork River, surrounded one of the McCoy's houses and set it on fire.
37:54Then they shot the McCoys as they ran from the flames.
37:58When Sarah McCoy tried to protect her daughter, she was beaten so severely that her skull was crushed.
38:03Miraculously, she survived and testified against the Hatfields here at the Pike County Courthouse in Pikeville in 1889.
38:11Spectators crowded in, hoping to get a glimpse of the bloodthirsty Mountain Desperados.
38:17The jury sentenced eight of the Hatfields to life.
38:21But it was a man named Ellison Mounts who got the death penalty for killing the McCoys.
38:27The Hatfield-McCoy feud got a lot of press at the time, which is a big reason why it became the stuff of frontier legend,
38:34even though killings like these were common across eastern Kentucky after the Civil War.
38:39But despite the backwoods violence that flared across the Appalachians,
38:44Kentucky was still seen as a land of liberty and always had been.
38:50In the late 1700s, a group of 44 Shaker missionaries arrived here,
38:56hoping to create their own heaven on earth at a place they called Pleasant Hill.
39:02They constructed unadorned buildings to reflect their values of humanity.
39:07They also built a church in the middle of the hill.
39:11The church was built in the early 1800s.
39:15They constructed unadorned buildings to reflect their values of humility and simplicity.
39:21Like the Quakers, Shakers worshipped without a minister.
39:25They believed that each member had access to the divine spirit,
39:29and when it moved them, they shook, danced, and marched around the room.
39:34Since the Shakers practiced celibacy, they relied on an influx of new converts to maintain their numbers,
39:41which made them adept recruiters.
39:44They hosted mass camp meetings in the woods known as the Great Kentucky Revival.
39:50These vibrant gatherings were like an early American Woodstock, without the free love.
39:56Thousands of young pioneers and frontiersmen sang and danced for days on end
40:01and listened to impassioned speakers preach of equality, communal living,
40:05and the need to preserve the virtue of the land.
40:15In the years leading up to the Civil War,
40:18the Shakers welcomed former slaves to join their community as equal members
40:22and even bought some slaves in order to free them.
40:25But there were many others in Kentucky who didn't share the Shakers' abolitionist sympathies,
40:31including one named Jefferson Davis,
40:34who became the President of the Confederate States on February 18, 1861.
40:39A few months later, the Kentucky Legislature met here in the old state capitol in Frankfurt
40:46and voted in favor of neutrality in the war.
40:49But that neutrality didn't last long.
40:52Kentucky's geographic location made it hard for its citizens not to take sides.
41:00To the south and east of Kentucky lay the slave states of Tennessee and Virginia.
41:05To the north, the free states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
41:10This meant that Kentucky was sandwiched between the Union and Confederate armies.
41:17Each wanted control of the state and its rivers, which were key transportation routes at the time.
41:23In 1861, Abraham Lincoln reportedly said,
41:27I hope to have God on my side, but I must have control.
41:31I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.
41:39Within a year, Louisville had become a major staging ground for Union troops.
41:44As 80,000 soldiers flooded into town, bars and brothels sprang up on the city's riverfront.
41:50In September 1862, the threat of a Confederate attack on Louisville forced thousands to evacuate.
41:57Many crowded into boats and fled across the river to Indiana.
42:01The attack never came.
42:04But battles flared elsewhere in Kentucky and led to heavy casualties for both sides.
42:11By the end of the war, tens of thousands of Kentuckians had died,
42:15most of them fighting as Confederate soldiers.
42:18Often, the dead were hastily buried where they fell.
42:22But some from both sides were laid to rest in small hometown cemeteries,
42:26like this one at Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Versailles.
42:41Today, much grander memorials mark the roles that Kentucky natives Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis played in the war.
42:49Here, near Lincoln's birthplace in Hodgenville,
42:52a Beaux-Arts structure rises at the end of a stairway with 56 steps, representing Lincoln's age when he died.
43:00The memorial was paid for by the donations of more than 100,000 citizens, schoolchildren, and businesses from across the North and South.
43:09Inside stands a reconstruction of Lincoln's famous childhood cabin
43:14to remind visitors of the 16th president's humble beginnings here on the Kentucky frontier.
43:19100 miles away, a memorial of a different kind was constructed in 1907 to honor Jefferson Davis, who died in New Orleans in 1889.
43:30This 350-foot-high obelisk was built in Davis's honor by the Daughters of the Confederacy,
43:36and like so much else in this state, it stands on a bed of Kentucky limestone.
43:49During the war, Kentucky brothers had fought their own brothers and fathers their own sons.
43:55But in 1942, more than 70 years after the end of the war, Kentucky adopted the state motto,
44:02United We Stand, Divided We Fall.
44:05And this belief in the power of standing united has a long history in the state, especially here in Berea.
44:13Back in 1855, an abolitionist preacher named John Gregg Fee founded a new college 30 miles south of Lexington.
44:22Berea College was the first in the American South to offer integrated classes for whites and blacks, many of whom were ex-slaves.
44:31It was also co-ed, another radical idea for the time.
44:35The college thrived after the war, but in 1904, Berea College was prohibited by Kentucky law from teaching black and white students in the same classrooms.
44:45It wasn't until 1950 that the college was permitted to return to its mission of providing an integrated education for blacks, whites, men, and women,
44:55and to live up to the state's motto, United We Stand.
45:05It may be called the Bluegrass State, but vast stretches of Kentucky are completely covered by trees.
45:13Trees that hide treasures of Kentucky history that are best spotted from the air.
45:21Like this legendary farmhouse west of Louisville.
45:25It's the childhood home of a man known as the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe.
45:31Under the shade of this porch, the Monroe boys played the fiddle and guitar.
45:36Bill, the youngest, took to the mandolin, like his mother, who died when he was just 10.
45:41Legend has it that so much music was played in this house over the years that the fibers of the wood in its walls and rafters resonate like instruments themselves.
45:51With his 1939 band, the Bluegrass Boys, Monroe traveled the country, combining elements of gospel, blues, folk songs, and old Irish fiddling to create a new genre he described as high, lonesome sound.
46:05A sound that's known to the world as bluegrass.
46:09Today, just down the road from Monroe's old farmhouse in the town of Rosine, musicians still gather every Friday night to honor Monroe's legacy and celebrate the heartfelt and nostalgic music that grew right out of Kentucky's soil.
46:26Bill Monroe was born in 1911, but his family first settled in Kentucky in the 1830s.
46:32By then, another rural Kentucky tradition was in full swing.
46:35An invention that was already being boiled, fermented, and barreled all across the state.
46:41Kentucky bourbon.
46:44Woodford Reserve is the oldest bourbon distillery in the state, dating back to the late 18th century.
46:50It's one of many distilleries located on Kentucky's Bourbon Trail, including popular brands like Wild Turkey, which dates back to 1869.
46:58When Prohibition hit in the 1920s, Kentucky's bourbon makers were forced to close.
47:04Except for one, thanks to some crafty repackaging.
47:08The Buffalo Trace Distillery, here in Frankfurt, sold its bourbon for medicinal use only.
47:14Or, at least that's what its labels claimed.
47:20These days, Kentucky's bourbon business is thriving.
47:23From small new craft distilleries to established names like Four Roses, which is now owned by a Japanese liquor conglomerate.
47:31The reason that Kentucky bourbon is famous around the world is its consistently distinctive taste.
47:37That's because Kentucky bourbon makers have to follow four strict rules.
47:42First of all, their bourbon has to be aged in new, charred, white oak barrels, which can spend 10 years or more in buildings like this.
47:51It has to be made from at least 51% corn.
47:55It can't have any added coloring.
47:58And it has to be between 40 and 80% alcohol.
48:02But there's one more thing that gives Kentucky bourbon its unique taste.
48:06It turns out that the same nutrient-rich limestone that helps thoroughbred horses grow into champions also makes the liquor here better.
48:13Since it helps filter impurities from the water.
48:19Most Kentuckians would probably agree that bourbon is the unofficial drink of the Bluegrass State.
48:25Just as thoroughbreds are the official horse.
48:28And as my old Kentucky home is the official state song.
48:33But unlike most states, the Commonwealth of Kentucky also has an old tradition.
48:38And it happens to be one of America's most coveted speed machines.
48:42The Chevrolet Corvette.
48:47A group of Corvette devotees is hitting the back roads with cars that date from the 1960s to today.
48:54This legendary speed machine is produced nearby, at GM's assembly plant in Bowling Green.
48:59Today, more than 400 workers build about 11,000 Corvettes a year.
49:08That may seem like a lot.
49:10But it's nothing compared to another Kentucky-based automotive giant, Toyota.
49:15This is the largest Toyota plant outside of Japan.
49:19It covers an area of 1.5 million square miles.
49:22Every 55 seconds, on average, a new Camry, Avalon or Venza rolls out of this plant through one of these doorways and heads up to the parking lot.
49:38And that's it.
49:40The Toyota Corvette.
49:42The new Toyota Corvette.
49:44The new Toyota Corvette.
49:46The new Toyota Corvette.
49:48The new Toyota Corvette.
49:50Then, each one is driven onto a railway car, designed specifically for automobiles.
49:57When the train cars are full, they head out to ports across the country, since most Kentucky-built Toyotas are shipped overseas.
50:05$4.4 billion worth of automobiles are exported from this state each year.
50:10Just one more example of the riches of the Bluegrass State.
50:14Where nature inspires awe.
50:17Party pioneers once beat the odds.
50:20And thousands still come, eager to win.
50:23This is the colorful, rugged, wide-open land of enduring traditions.
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