Western Kentucky Botanical Garden and Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum

We left home at 7 am for the three-hour drive to Owensboro, Kentucky. We had packed a lunch of cheese, hummus, crackers, pretzels and fresh fruit. Driving on Rt. 60 then on to the Western Kentucky Parkway was easy and there was little traffic. We really enjoyed the time that we spent in Owensboro in 2021. This time, we wanted to visit the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden as part of the Kentucky Garden Trail. Of course, we also wanted to revisit the National Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Green River Distillery.

Mary at Western Kentucky Botanical Garden

The weather last week was in the mid-90s and the humidity was very high. Today we had a dramatic cool down with temperatures in the 50s and low 60s. There was a light mist as we drove west and crossed into the Central Time Zone. At a Walmart in Owensboro, we bought some warmer clothes. Mary picked up a knit cap, and I got a long-sleeved T-shirt since we would be outside for a few hours at the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden.

The volunteer at the garden took our $5 senior entrance fees and gave us a map of the property. Mary got stamps for us in the passports for the Kentucky Garden Trail. We did a quick walk through the 1880 home now serving at the headquarters of the garden. The house was very well restored and preserved. On the second floor of the house there were several bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom. The kitchen was busy preparing for a private lunch on the grounds.

Walking around the grounds we were impressed with the variety of annuals and perennials with sculptures scattered among the plantings. Most plants were clearly labeled and planted in areas with specific themes such as medicinal plants, pollinator gardens, hostas and daylilies. A large event venue was being built that will be able to accommodate weddings, corporate workshops and large parties. There was a large stainless-steel sculpture of a basket with a butterfly on the handle. Visitors can turn a crank to make the butterfly’s wings move and the caterpillar bob.

The greenhouse had an assortment of orchids and tropical succulents with an attached meeting room and restrooms. A paved path around the gardens was calibrated to a quarter mile for visitors wishing to do exercise walking. The volunteers were starting to place Halloween decorations through the garden displays as well as preparing the gardens for the coming autumn weather.

We sat in the parking lot to have the lunch that we packed before leaving this morning. Since it was only noon, we decided to spend the afternoon at the National Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Parking throughout Owensboro was free although limited to two hours in some areas. We were able to park beside the museum although we saw some spaces right in front of the entrance. We recalled how much we enjoyed the small facility in 2021 and were anxious to revisit the displays.

The volunteer at the entrance charged us the senior rate of $12 each and gave us a map of the displays and a narration device on a lanyard for the self-guided tour. We started in the room for musicians where some high-end guitars, banjos, mandolins and Dobros were hanging for visitors to play. The first exhibit was for the most recent inductees in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. These were Arnold Shultz, a roots musician from the 1920s and 30s, The Bluegrass Cardinals, a pioneering bluegrass group in the 1970s and 80s. and Hot Rize, a bluegrass group in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. We had seen Hot Rize and their alter ego, western band, Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers several times at Mountain Stage in the 1980s and 90s. We have since seen frontman, West Virginian, Tim O’Brien, several time since.

We followed the displays through the origins of bluegrass music where we learned more about Bill Monroe and saw his Uncle Pendleton Vandiver’s fiddle. There were numerous video screens with interviews of musicians, promoters, industry executives, historians and others throughout the exhibits. A large room had photos of bluegrass festivals beginning in the late 1960s and peaking in the 1970s. These multiday events had many of the musicians and bands that are now included in the Hall of Fame. People like Doc and Merle Watson, Del McCoury, the Osbourne Brothers, the Stanley Brothers, Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs and so many others were featured in the displays. There was a section on the popularity of bluegrass music outside of the US including albums by a very popular Japanese bluegrass band.

The last set of displays on the ground floor was dedicated to the influence of the Cincinnati-Dayton area on bluegrass music. In the period from the 1930s to the 1960s, many rural Appalachian families from West Virginia and Kentucky came to southern Ohio for better paying jobs. These mountain people brought the music from their backgrounds to the Ohio cities where they found clubs and radio stations ready to play their music and promoters anxious to put out records and organize tours.

On the second floor of the museum there were brass plaques for each inductee into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. The plaques ran from the initial inductees Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs to the aforementioned 2025 inductees. There was a room housing a temporary exhibit to the late John Hartford. A video interview with Hartford showed his love of riverboats and how he came to learn how to pilot a vessel on the Mississippi River. The final exhibit was a video station where visitors could click on a current or past inductee to watch video interviews and learn more about the life and career of each inductee.

Before we knew it, we had spent four hours in the museum, so we drove to the Super 8 motel across town. The motel was good when we stayed here in 2021 and the rate for our stay was under $100 so it seemed an easy decision to return here. Checking in was fast and we passed by the free Dunkin Donuts at the front desk to walk up to our second-floor room. The motel was recently remodeled, and our room was quite comfortable. There were plenty of AC and USB outlets in the lamps and alarm clock. The flooring was new LVT and the bathroom had a new shower with plenty of hot water. The room was very quiet and was plenty dark for sleeping once the window shade was closed.

We relaxed in the room for about an hour then drove to Moonlite Bar-B-Q, a very popular Owensboro restaurant specializing in signature mutton barbecue. Another specialty in the area is burgoo, a traditional stew that was said to include at least three types of wild game. Today, burgoo can be made with chicken, pork, mutton or other meats as well as mixed vegetables and broth.

When we arrived at Moonlite Bar-B-Q we were seated near the buffet and got a plate of sliced mutton, chopped mutton, beef brisket, pork barbecue and chicken barbecue along with beans (with huge chunks of meat), broccoli casserole, salad, coleslaw and other sides. There were many desserts from which to choose including cherry or blackberry cobbler, pies (chocolate, peanut butter, buttermilk, pecan and lemon) and ice cream.

The restaurant was busy but not crowded and workers were constantly refilling the buffet. We had plenty of time to enjoy our meal and try items from the bar that looked interesting. On our way out of the restaurant, we saw photos of the many celebrities who had eaten there including Merle Haggard and Bill Clinton.

Back at the restaurant we watched a little television while we digested our dinner. Although the clock said 9 pm, our bodies were still running on Eastern Time so we turned in and slept well through the night.

International Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum

World's largest sassafras tree

The bed at the Super 8 was very comfortable and appeared to be new. After 9 pm the second floor room was quiet, so we slept well. We walked down to the motel’s breakfast area where scrambled eggs, sausage links, fresh fruits, cereals, toast and the ever present Dunkin Donuts were available. 

After checking out and assuring that there was no charge, we drove north on Frederica Street to what is reported to be the world’s largest sassafras tree in the yard of an insurance agency next to the Owensboro Public Library. The sassafras trees were quite impressive and believed to be over 100 feet tall and 250-300 years old. 

Fountains in Smothers Park

We then drove to the river where we parked at Owensboro’s Smothers Park along the Ohio River. This was one of the nicer riverfront parks that we have visited. It reminded us of the river walks in Pittsburgh and other revitalized cities. There were a good many locals walking on the wide concrete path overlooking the river. A geotrail has several easy geocaches for visitors to find. Three fountains sprayed water in orchestrated patterns to the music. There were nice public bathrooms and a fantastic playground. We spent a lot of time walking on the paths that were being decorated for Christmas and through the playground. An older lady approached me because I was wearing a Marshall University sweatshirt. She said that she was inspired by the We Are Marshall movie and had a lot of respect for the football program. She told us that she once made a detour on a family trip to stop by the Marshall campus. While leaning over a railing, a pair of sunglasses got dropped into an empty water feature, so I jumped the fence and retrieved them before security could see me.

We made the short drive to the Green River Distillery, formerly the O. Z. Tyler Distillery, early for our 10 am tour and tasting. Our guide, Taylor, welcomed us at the door, and we spent a few minutes in the gift shop until we left on the tour. Taylor was well acquainted with the history and process at Green River Distilling despite having worked there less than a year. She took us through receiving and milling the grain to where the mash is blended and cooked then to the stainless fermentation vats. 

Unlike cypress mash tuns that we have seen at some other distilleries, these are sealed containers to precisely control the temperature and environment of the fermentation. In addition, Taylor told us that the stainless vats can be completely steam cleaned permitting the fermentation of different mashbills in the vats from one batch to another. The large Vendome column still produces the low proof distillate that is then sent to a doubler where the high proof “new make” whiskey is prepared for entry into the char 4 barrels. 

We learned that Green River Distillery is the tenth distillery to be licenced in Kentucky (KSP-10) and is now the fourth largest producer of bourbon in the state. Green River Distillery began operation in 1885 and produced award winning whiskey. A fire at the distillery in 1918 caused the distillery to shut down before prohibition. The distillery was rebuilt in 1936 and the property changed hands many times since. In 2014 the distillery reopened as the O. Z. Tyler Distillery and in 2020 the distillery regained the Green River Distillery name. 

We have had the O. Z. Tyler Bourbon and liked it and were disappointed that it is no longer being made. However, we were familiarized with the other excellent bourbons being produced. At the tasting we sampled Kentucky 10 Bourbon, made with wheat as the secondary grain, and Yellow Banks, named for the frontier name of Owensboro, with rye as the secondary grain. We also saw several bourbons that are made at Green River including Bradshaw (for Terry Bradshaw), Duke (for John Wayne’s estate), Quarter Horse and others. We also tasted Ladder 9, a cinnamon flavored bourbon. We expected it to be like Fireball but were pleased that the cinnamon was very subtle in the finish of the bourbon. We were very impressed with the quality of the spirits made at Green River and purchased a bottle of Yellow Banks for us and a bottle of Ladder 9 for one of Mary’s former co-workers.

Moonlite Bar-B-Q

After leaving the distillery, we drove to Moonlight Bar-B-Q for more Western Kentucky mutton barbecue. After looking at the buffet, we decided on that option since we could try many of the menu choices to see what we liked best. Both of us enjoyed the mutton barbecue as well as pulled pork and the buttered corn.

After lunch we drove to the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame and Museum, which is very near the park where we walked this morning. Our senior admission was $10 each down from the regular fee of $12. The first area we entered had 20 or more stringed instruments hanging that visitors were welcome to play. The guitars, mandolins, banjos and violins were all good quality instruments from makers such as Martin and Gibson. From there we walked around the displays documenting milestones in bluegrass music. 

Uncle Pen's fiddle

Large video screens positioned around the museum’s first floor featured interviews with notable bluegrass musicians such as Ricky Skaggs and Del McCoury as well as others like Yale University’s president who is a bluegrass fan. Artifacts such as Earl Scruggs’ banjos and a fiddle belonging to Bill Monroe’s Uncle Pen are displayed.

Earl Scruggs' banjos

From there, we went to the second floor where we stopped at a set of touch screens that accessed interviews with bluegrass musicians and industry officials. 

Disposable earphones for listening to the videos were provided. One room held a display of banjos produced by a notable maker showing various stages in the production of a hand-crafted instrument. The last room we visited held biographical plaques of all inductees into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. We enjoyed reading these and had seen most of the performers at live shows or on the televised Grand Ole Opry.

Although the museum was not large, the exhibits were well displayed and interesting. There are several events at the museum in most years and we would seriously consider returning if an event interested us.

We left Owensboro around 3:30 pm and arrived back home around 6:30. Traffic around Louisville was bad but the trip was otherwise uneventful. We both agreed that the trip was a great time and we plan to return to Owensboro soon.