A Little History of Bullitt County, Ky

Bullitt County is located just south of Kentucky's largest city, Louisville. Bullitt County was created on December 13, 1796 from two counties, Jefferson and Nelson and was named for Kentucky's first Lieutnant Governor, Alexander Scott Bullitt. Settlers had already come to this area years earlier, due to the natural roads created by herds of buffalo, deer, and elk that migrated to this area for the salt found in the salt licks throughout the area. One of the largest salt making operations was started at Bullitt's Lick, which was found by and named after Captain Thomas Bullitt, who found it on a surveying expedition in 1773.

Famous frontiersmen Daniel and his brother Squire Boone were among many who followed buffalo and deer herds to the salt licks. Salt was very critical to the survival of settlers, Native Americans, and animals, and often sites of battles between settlers and Native Americans. Bullitt's Lick was the site of the first commercial industry in Kentucky-Salt Production. Serving Kentucky, Illinois, and tennessee territories, salt was shipped in barrels down the Salt, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers on to New Orleans. Shepherdsville then developed near the licks and became the county seat. The Wilderness Trail made a turn here in Bullitt County to the Salt Licks, becoming the first inland distribution system for commerce in the western frontier.

If you travel on I-65, Ky. Hwy 44, and or Ky. Hwy 61 while visiting Bullitt County, you'll be tracing parts of that historic trail that led from the Cumberland Gap, in the east, to Bullitt's Lick and on the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville. Salt, taken for granted today, was a precious commodity to pioneers. Fires kept row after row of huge black kettles boiling to yield a few bushels of salt each day, which was shipped by flatboats on the Ohio River and was sent from Pittsburgh and new Orleans.

Iron production was another pioneer industry in Bullitt County. Thirty-foot tall stone furnaces heated by huge quantities of wood and charcoal smelted iron out of the native rock ore twenty-four hours a day during the first half of the nineteenth century. Significant remains of the Belmont Iron Furnace still exists in the county. A massive "Iron Works" powered by a water wheel on the Salt River in Shepherdsville, made everything from nails to iron stoves used at Shaker Village at Harrodsburg, Kentucky and, it is said, the first railroad rails west of the Alleghenies, were made here.

Bullitt's natural resources, especially timber, suffered greatly at the hands of this early industry. The huge quantities of timber it took to fire the kettles used to boil salt water into salt, and for the furnaces used to melt ore into iron, created a demand for wood that virtually stripped the land of trees. After a century of this industrial development both the salt and iron industries faded. In 1929 a successful business man and visionary formed The Bernheim Foundation and purchased over 14,000 acres of land to allow it, lovingly guided along the way, to return to natural forest. Today Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is internationally recognized for its work with native-habitat rehabilitation and its unmatched collections of native species plants and trees. You can see native flora and fauna and learn about the evolution of this area since its earliest history.

About the end of the 18th century there was another industry emerging and it wasn't long until another Kentucky product was being shipped through the same routes in Bullitt County. The Beam Family discovered the smoothness of the limestone water in the Clermont area and began making Jim Beam Bourbon. Today, after more than 200 years of continous operations, the Jim Beam Distillery at the American Outpost produces among the finest and most popular bourbons in the world.

From 1826 to 1870 Paroquet Springs, near Shepherdsville, was one of the most noted health and pleasure resorts in the South. People came from far distances to partake of its rich mineral waters that were thought to be very healthy, and to luxuriate in the superior accommodations of the day. The modern day Paroquet Springs has been reborn as a fresh and attractive new conference center.

Today, rolling knobs, lakes, rivers, and forests in the area offer plenty of opportunity to get back to nature...all within close range of I-65. There is fishing, horseback riding, bird-watching, camping, and hiking. Rapid residential and clean industrial growth tempered with a growing reawakening to the history and ecology of the area. This fascinating area of Kentucky still has the same historic roads that led the westward movement and dispersed our resources and products.. Today those same roads lead to many regional attractions Louisville, Bardstown, Elizabethtown, and Radcliff/Fort Knox, and disperse commerce throughout the nation. Travel at a modern pace, or take scenic back roads following the Wilderness Trail, Country Music Trails, Bourbon Trail, and Civil War Trails. You can find trail maps at Paroquet Springs Conference Centre.