Escape from Tennessee to North Carolina

 We packed up and headed out of Tennessee early... more snow, and possibly deeper than the last snow. Fortunately our next stop, at a KOA, in Statesville NC was able to fit us in a day early.

From this photo you might think we brought trouble with us to North Carolina... we dodged the snow bullet, although it was supposed to rain on us, passed by without incident.

This Journey KOA is not one we will probably stay at again... freeway noise. Noise generally travels in an upward direction, and this campground is built above the freeway level... and we were in the area closest to the freeway traffic.

We decided that we were not going to cry over freeway traffic noise... we went into tourist mode. Our first stop was to Fort Dobbs. This fort, as most of their forts in this area were built by the French to enforce their claim in North American

territory, which included Canada, and land from Louisiana to Pennsylvania territory. Being mortal enemies, there were disputes between the British and French regarding territory in North America. 

Keep in mind that the Native American Indian tribes had peace agreements with both France and Great Britain. 

The reality of the French and Indian War, was that it was part of the Seven Year War between France and Great Britain in Europe and Asia. 

This particular fort was completed in 1756 by provincial soldiers for the protection of colonists in the surrounding area. The fort was only attacked once by Cherokee warriors, in 1760. This attack was part

of a war known as the Anglo-Indian War. On February 27, 1760, Colonel Waddell saw what looked to be movement in the trees at the edge of the stream, and he and some of his soldiers went to investigate. They made contact with the Cherokee, and were forced to retreat. Waddell reported two casualties, one was scalped, and died a few days later in the fort, the other recuperated. The fort had a short history, decommissioned in 1764, and  in decay, by 1766.

Thanks to the Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.)., we have a fort. With that said, let's tour the fort. The fort is a reconstruction from original documentation.

This is the starting point for the guided tour. The cabin was built as the office/meetings during the archeological dig of the site. The D.A.R. bought the land in 1909, had the archeological dig conducted, reconstructed the fort, and gave the land and fort to the state. Besides being the place to pay the whopping $2.00 for the tour, there are artifacts from the dig on display, and a gift shop. The fort was formally opened in 1976.

The building construction directions were as follows: "A good and Substantial Building of the Dimentions following (that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty four feet and Twenty-two, In height Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls which are made of Oak Logs regularly Diminished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains three floors and there may be discharged from each floor at one and the same time about one hundred Muskets the same is beautifully scituated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch of the Yadkin River."

The trench you see around the fort would have been about four feet deep, with the barricade in or behind the trench. This is a three story fort, with lots of little holes for guys to shoot out of. 

The requirement was that soldiers could shoot from all sides of the fort... in large numbers. The second picture above is a look out one of the firing holes. With all those holes in the walls, you may ask... how did they keep it warm in the winter...

they made a block that fit in the opening. Along with openings for firing their muskets, there are larger openings designed to mount small cannons, that had an accuracy of about 300 yards. The cannons were able to fire lead balls the size of a golf ball, as well as a wrapped package of buckshot called "grape shot".

 The guided tour starts once the guide unlocks the front door... that's right, unlocks the doors, they don't want people just walking in because they will miss the whole experience. Entering the door, and to the right, is the first station explaining how they made their ammunition. The room was barracks, the supplies were stored in the cellar below. The kegs

contained the rations of meat, salt, and alcohol. They stored pieces of uniforms in this room as well. I say pieces because the enlisted had to purchase their own uniforms, and most of the soldiers could not afford a complete uniform. The officers were a different story, they bought their commission, therefore they could afford complete uniforms.

As visitors continue their guided tour, they head to another multi-purpose room.

You might be able to see that the bunks are oversized... not for comfort though... they slept two men per bunk. This room also functioned as the kitchen, dining room, weapon maintenance, and social area. The gun ports were on all sides of the fort, however, there were two rooms at opposite corners of the fort, containing many gun ports as well, and where the guards were stationed, as well as the second floor.

The first floor Guardroom contained the fort's water supply. Moving up the stairs, we see the difference between enlisted and officer quarters.

The glaring differences... one man per bed, linens on the dining table, silverware, and proper uniforms. The reason, most officers were from  prominent families, and were allowed to bring articles they were accustomed to living with. This room functioned as Colonel Waddell's office as well. In his own words, this is how he described that skirmish that February day in 1760: "... for several days I observed that a small party of Indians were constantly about the fort, I sent out several small parties after them to no purpose, the evening before last... I found... there must be a party nigh a spring which we sometimes use.

... I took Capt. Baillie who with myself and party made up of ten; we had not marched 300 yards from the fort when we were attacked by at least 60 or 70 Indians... We recd the Indians fire: when I perceived they had almost all fired, I ordered my party to fire which we did not further than 12 steps each loaded with a bullet and 7 buck shot... They found the fire very hot from a small number which a good deal confused them. I then ordered my party to retreat, as I found the instant our skirmish began another party had attacked the fort, upon our... reinforcing the garrison the Indians were soon repulsed with I am sure a considerable loss...

they cou'd not have less than 10 or 12 killed and wounded, and I believe they have taken 6 of my horses to carry off the wounded; the next morning we found a great deal blood and one dead... On my side I had 2 men wounded one of whom I am afraid will die as he is scalped, the other is in a way of recovery." There you go folks, the one and only skirmish at the fort. For more information about the fort and battle, go to : http://www.fortdobbs.org.

After we learned a little more about the French and Indian War, and Ft. Dobbs, we headed to learn a little more about Bourbon. What was nice was the proximity between the two places we visited this trip.

The day we visited, their boiler was down, so there was no production goin' on, just bottling product. Like many distilleries, this one contracts with those who desire to have their product distilled, but do not have the facilities to produce.

Inside we go, they still provide tours before a complimentary tasting.

I am starting in the warehouse first. A lot of these barrels were distilled for customers. While in their warehouse, I asked our tour guide Ron if there is a difference in the way the barrels are stored. As bourbon ages in the barrel, some of the char loosens and settles to the bottom of the barrel. Some folks believe that barrels on there side offer more area for the char to settle. Let's go back out on the production floor. The distilling process these days is pretty much automated. Coming in the front door of the production area, there is a 4,000 gallon per hour distilling tower. 

I am going to start at the back of the production floor, at the back door. Outside of the building are large hoppers containing, corn, wheat, and rye. The grain trucks come in and unload the grain into the designated hopper. When production starts, the necessary grain is called from the hoppers and sent to the cooking kettle. The temperature in the kettle can be adjusted for cooking the different grains, corn requiring the highest temperature, then wheat, and finally rye.

Chilled water is used in the cooking kettle to control the grain cooking temperature. From the cooking kettle, the product goes to beer vats. Up those steps, and to the ten beer vats, seven are for fermentation, three are for sending product the distilling tower. The vats contain different stages of fermentation. The vats are double walled to provide temperature control during fermentation, this is done through chilled water injection between the walls. We were fortunate to see fermentation at several stages.

In the beginning there is a lot of bubbling, due to chemical action. Some of the first tanks have a lot of bubble activity, while the one to the left is pretty much done fermenting, and is waiting to be transferred to a vat that delivers the product to the distilling tower. 

This is what a new batch looks like, lots of bubbling. The crusty stuff is the grain mash. If you remember from a previous post, bourbon must be at least 51% corn, the rest can be any other grain/s.
As the product is fermenting, the chemical reaction produces heat, which can be felt by waving a hand over the vat, or sticking a finger 

in it. This is what a vat looks like after the product is drained and moved to one of the transfer vats. They generally do not stay in the beer vats more than a week, once the fermentation is done.  The transfer vats look the same on the outside, it is in the inside where you see the difference... a propeller at the bottom of the tank, used for stirring the product. This tank

hasn't been cleaned yet. once it makes it to these tanks, it almost ready to become bourbon. The mash product leaves the vat and starts the distilling process in the tower kettle, where the mash is fed to the top of the tower, and drops down the tower, burning off methane gas, which is released into the atmosphere, outside the building. Quick refresher: in the distilling there are three parts to the distillation, head, heart, and tails. 

The goal is getting rid of head and tails. The process of burning off methane, is getting rid of the "head". The "tails" are an oily byproduct of the distilling process, and need to be removed. In the automated system, the event of "tails" removal occurs automatically. What we learned is that the tails cannot be seen when looking at the distilled product, because it is clear. It was my understanding that the product is run through the right cylinder, until there is no longer evidence of an oily substance, once clear it begins the ride through the left side. Here is a closer look at the "unseen oily" byproduct.

Look closely at the right cylinder, and you will notice the ring around the cylinder, which is the oily byproduct. Look at the left side, it is clean, this would be the end product that is stored in the charred oak barrels, for a minimum of four years, stored in the warehouse you saw in the first picture. The business is picking up so much, that they are installing a second distiller, which will handle an additional 2,000 gallons an hour.

For specialty product they have a smaller distiller that is manually controlled. The small distiller requires a good knowledge as to when to move on from one stage to another. With the small distiller, the operator has to feel the product to determine when the "tails" are removed. In fact, they just finished a personal batch for a customer, and had it sitting in a large plastic container, waiting to be transferred to barrels.

From the production floor we took a walk to the tasting area. We tasted three varieties of rye bourbons, three wheat bourbons, and a Coffee Bourbon Cream Liqueur. While I am a bourbon lover, Carol and I REALLY liked the liqueur, and brought home two bottles.

After the tours we headed to lunch, then back home, so we could prep for departure.