Miss Mary Bobo, Lynchburg, and “Mr Jack” Daniel
Central Tennessee, wooded and rural, historically rich, and very warm, was where we spent the day yesterday. Lynchburg is one of the best known place names in Tennessee, and the home to Jack Daniel distillery. Clear iron-free water from Cave Spring and a charcoal mellowing process distinguish the whiskey brand which is bottled by taste and not age. The company is the largest producer of whiskey in the world, and was taken global in production by the Brown-Forman company which owns many other famous brands of liquor as well. The beautiful original site is preserved for 200,000 visitors a year to tour free of charge-the barrel house, fermenting process, charcoal mellowing vats, distilling operation, are just a few of the things that can be seen on the tour. The only original building on the site to this day is “Mr Jack’s” office. He was making whiskey at 7 years of age and registered his distillery as the nation’s first registered distillery when the government began taxing liquor, in 1866 at the age of 16…….
Before touring the whiskey distillery we went to Miss Mary Bobo’s boarding house, which she established in 1908. A traditional southern meal was served that included “Apples with Jack” and I often fry apples at home but now, they could (and at times, will) have a special added twist as Charles Iager of Maryland got several of us ladies the recipe postcard!
Since our tour, regretably became unrepairably off schedule, we had to forego the Walking Horse tour which we were incredibly disappointed about, but in lieu of this, we got to tour the downtown area of Lynchburg for a while and this included some antique shops, and great old original architecture to be viewed of some of the 100 historic places that are in Lynchburg. Also, there is a fact filled Museum dedicated to the Walking Horse and that industry on the square that is extremely interesting. Some tour participants picked up some souvenirs from the official Jack Daniel gift emporium as well.
It was a great day wrapped up by dinner at the Ole Lamplighter on the River near Columbia..where today we pick up our tour again!