Before the construction of the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio (between Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana), boats typically had to wait out a low water period on the Ohio river during the summer and winter months. This led to the creation of activities to help visitors pass the time as they waited. One of those activities was goat racing, which developed along the road that would become known as Billy Goat Strut Alley, in an area of the city currently known as NuLu.
Goat races are featured each spring in Nulu’s Bock festival, in honor of this historic tradition.
The lock and dam system began operating in the 1830s.
