Boone County

What a day we had on Saturday!  We got started a little later than we had planned, but had a great time nonetheless.  No one seemed to want to get out of bed on time except for mom.  Then, when we got out of the house we realized we had left Roadkill at home, so we had to go back and get him.  Good thing too, he had a good time this weekend as well.  He was jumping in pictures everywhere we stopped.  Our first stop was in Boone County.  I can't wait to tell you about it, but first we have to cover the history.

BOONE COUNTY HISTORY

Boone County was established in 1799 after the Kentucky Legislature approved its forming in 1798.  At that time less than 200 men owned all the land in the county.  The county is located in the largest bend in the Ohio River and has over 42 miles of waterfront along the Ohio to the north and west.  Historically, Boone County's economy has been driven by agriculture with such crops as tobacco, soybeans, corn and livestock.  However, with the construction of the airport in the late '40s and I-75 in the late '60s, Boone County has seen the addition of other industries.  The county was named for frontiersman Daniel Boone and the county seat is Burlington.  There are several other well known cities located throughout the county, including Florence, Hebron, Union and Walton.

Boone County is known to be home to several prehistoric sites dating back to 1150 A.D.  The first European likely to have visited the area was a Frenchman who sailed down the Ohio River in 1729.  The area of the map that is now Boone County has an inscription that says "where they found the bones of an elephant".  This eventually led to further exploration of the area that is now Big Bone Lick.  Big Bone Lick is an ancient swamp that had a combination of water and minerals that large prehistoric animals could not resist.  Bones of mammoths, bison, mastodons, stag-moose and giant sloths have been found there.  The specimens that have been obtained from this area are world renowned.

The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is located in Hebron and is the 5th largest Delta Airlines hub in the country.  The airport was completed and saw its first landing in January of 1947, an American Airlines DC-3.  The airport has 4 runways the largest of which is 12,000 feet long.  The airport sees over 247,000 flights annually.  Comair, a division of Delta is based at this airport.

The Florence Mall was opened in 1976.  It is a two-story facility that has seen several renovations over the years.  It currently has 130 tenants and is the largest mall in Northern Kentucky.  The mall is located just off of Interstate 75 and is known for the water tower on the front of the property that says "FLORENCE Y'ALL".

One of the more colorful areas of Boone County is Rabbit Hash.  There are several versions on where the name Rabbit Hash came from.  In one version the name is based on a local legend that says the town was well-known on the Ohio as having great rabbit hash and was often visited by river travelers.  The legend continues that in 1831 a pirate ship docked and entered the town and killed all the residents and burned all the buildings.  The next steamboat to stop for hash saw a 3 foot sign that said Rabbit Hash on the only building left standing, so they thought it was the name of the town.  Since the town is currently unincorporated, the exact boundaries are unknown.  Because of the this, the population is estimated between 4 and 40.  Its also fun to note, the residents elected a dog as mayor in 1998.  They have even made a movie about it, Rabbit Hash: The Center of the Universe.

OUR VISIT

The first place we visited was the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.  We have been there several times but we thought it would be a good place to start and work our way back towards home.  Since I have flown out of there a few times, we decided to visit the airplane viewing area off of Donaldson Road.  We set there and watched the planes land for a few minutes and took a few pictures as well.  There is a Historical Marker there that says the Center of the US population was in that spot in 1880.  The population at that time was over 49.3 million.

We knew we wanted to go to Rabbit Hash, since moms maiden name is Hash.  So when we left the airport we headed back through Florence towards Rabbit Hash.  We had to go back into town, because one of the boys needed some allergy medicine.  So we had to stop by Wal-Mart.  I  haven't mentioned it before, but this is not the first Wal-Mart stop on the 120 in 12.  I think that mom and the boys have another plan on top of the 120 in 12.  I think they are trying to see every Wal-Mart in the state as well.  Anyway, on our way, we passed Turfway Park.  One of the boys asked what it was, so we told them it was a racehorse track and decided to stopped for a picture.  Of course Roadkill had to jump right in it.  Then as we were trying to get out of town, z sees a factory where they make Airheads and mentos.  Naturally he wanted a picture of that too.  So we went back and snapped a quick one.

From there, we jumped on Highway 18 and got off on Lower River Road and followed the Ohio River for several miles, until we reached Rabbit Hash.  The turn off is marked with a sign denoting its listing on the National Historic Register.  We loved this place as soon as we rounded the corner.  It's a collection of maybe a half a dozen buildings, including the Rabbit Hash General Store, The Old Hashienda, an antique store and a few other buildings.   We visited the General Store and spent half an hour looking around and talking with who I assume was the owner, Teri.  We talked about the store and she told the boys a few secrets and we told her about our 120 in 12 adventure.  She loved it and asked if she could have her picture taken with Roadkill.  Of course, we obliged.  This is one of the places we decided we needed a souvenir from, so we picked a few things. We spent a few more minutes looking around "town" and taking a few more pictures.  They even had a his and hers public outhouse.  We could have stayed there all day, but the road was calling and we had at least 3 more counties to see.

We left Rabbit Hash going up Rabbit Hash Hill Road.  We hadn't driven very far, when I saw a sign and surprised at what it said.  I thought there is no way there is really such a place.  I thought I might wreck from laughing.  So we turned around and went back.  Sure enough, it said exactly what I thought it did.  If we hadn't had any photo opportunities up to this point, we had one now!  I'm of the opinion this might be one of the most unique things we will see on the 120 in 12.  Yes, that's right, it is a Jackass Farm.

As we were headed out of Boone County towards Gallatin County, we happened to drive by Big Bone Lick State Park.  Mom and I had visited there several years ago for a cookout with friends, but the boys had never been, so again we made a quick stop.  We were there just long enough for Roadkill to get his picture taken again.

I've already started to see another pattern emerging.  The County that is the first one on the list for the day gets the longest visit.  We had planned on the airport and Rabbit Hash, but ended up with four other stops.  Now we were really running behind.  Good thing we were on our way to The Kentucky Speedway, because I was flying!