An old wagon with bourbon barrels (with bourbon rickhouses in the background) on display at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort Kentucky. The first Kentucky bourbon dates back to 1795, when Jacob Beam first sold his “Old Jake Beam Sour Mash. Seven generations of the Beam family have been involved in the production bourbon since that time.
The Buffalo Trace Distillery, which dates back to 1775, has gone by several names over that time, including George T. Stagg Distillery and the Old Fashioned Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery. The current name, Buffalo Trace, refers to well known pathways that buffalo herds left behind on the Great Plains and Midwest that Indian tribes and later European pioneers, followed during their travels. In some cases they became the basis for highways now used today in the United States.