Mountain Homeplace
Staffordsville
Instead of imagining 1800s Appalachia by looking at artifacts, guests can relive the experience at Mountain Homeplace near Paintsville. On a typical visit to the 27-acre living-history museum, groups can smell bread baking in a wood-burning stove, listen to baby goats bleating and watch chickens roaming free. Draft horses loosen soil and pull wagons to give rides.
Re-enactors in period attire demonstrate skills once commonplace, such as quilting and forging horseshoes. The site’s five historic structures include a blacksmith shop, a home, a one-room schoolhouse, a church and a barn.
During tours, guides share details about day-to-day existence in Appalachia. One story explains the practicality of placing a washstand near the back door so that the stand’s mirror will catch the light from the door and the nearby window, saving 15 to 20 minutes of lamp oil a day.
For a more comprehensive explanation of the history, guests can wander through the Museum of Appalachian History. The attached gift shop sells regional arts and crafts.
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption
Covington
With 82 hand-poured stained-glass windows from Munich, Germany, the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption is among the most beautiful churches in the country. The 24-foot-wide, 67-foot-tall window on the north transept of the basilica is one of the largest stained-glass windows in the world. Two rose windows mimic the dazzling colors and design of those of the Notre Dame Cathedral.
Built in 1895, the ornate Gothic Revival basilica combines styles from 13th-century Europe with local materials such as limestone. Interior murals depict biblical scenes.
Guided tours detail the challenges of constructing this ambitious church and why, in 1915, church officials eventually abandoned long-held plans for two additional towers.
Wickliffe Mounds State Historic Site
Wickliffe
When people see Wickliffe’s mounds along a bluff on the Mississippi River, many questions arise: What purpose did the mounds serve? Who built them?
Wickliffe Mounds State Park attempts to answer those questions with a site that re-creates what life was like for prehistoric Native Americans. Re-enactors demonstrate activities such as stone-grinding corn, making clay pots and throwing spears, and offer guests the opportunity to join in on the action.
Visitors can see several remaining mounds, including one that stands 10 feet above ground.
Guests can even walk inside a mound, since the museum sits in an excavated mound.
