From mountains to repurposed underground coal mines that age bourbon to music and adventure.

Eastern Kentucky has its sights set on becoming a major tourism destination.

There is more to the region than the storied Hatfield and McCoy family feud.

Elected officials, entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts say that for those looking to swap big city tours for quaint, small town charm with adventure options galore.

Pikeville in Pike County is just the getaway for them.

I visited the area a couple of weeks ago to learn more with State Senator Philip Wheeler, who hails from Pikeville, as our tour guide.

Well, you know, when I first got elected in 2019, we had, been through some struggles, obviously, with the decline in the coal industry, which, you know, carried this region for many generations.

So coming up with a new, not necessarily replacement, but at least a concurrent industry to diversify our economy was, was really something that, you know, was a goal of mine.

I mean, and you're sitting in, the perfect example of that right now.

I mean, you know, and and Shannon and Kendal Ride took a, a facility that, you know, have been through some tough times, and they're now investing their, their dedication and their resources here to Eastern Kentucky to make sure that it flourishes here in our community and serves as another attraction to get people into this area.

Kendall Wright is one half of the Brothers Wright Distilling.

So we're, sitting in the entryway to the, dueling barrels Distillery, which is now the Brothers Wright Distilling Company.

My brother and I took over the, the facility about eight weeks ago.

We are local, local boys.

We built our brands and our companies right here and locally here.

And 50 gallon moonshine steel.

And then we have a spirit.

We've been in business nearly 30 years.

And we started going down this, this avenue of about five years ago and just had a passion for bourbon and, the bourbon industry.

We also have production capabilities from, being able to run all the equipment from the basement as well.

The Brothers Ride Distilling Company is known for aging.

It's Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and an over 100 year old repurposed underground coal mine.

The former dueling barrels, which the brothers Kendall and Shannon acquired, was the vision of late Altec founder Pierce Lyons, who, with his wife Deirdre, created a visitor experience reminiscent of their native Ireland.

It was Eastern Kentucky's first combined beer, bourbon and moonshine operation.

The Lyons family built such an amazing facility here.

And really, it really opened before Covid, but kind of Covid kind of slowed it down quite a bit and, and, they reached out to us about six months ago and asked us if we'd be interested, and, we figured out how to make it happen.

So, when I, when you look at, you know, the old Dueling Barrels brochure, you know, it talks about bourbon country moonshine belt and Appalachian craft beer corridor.

And Pikeville is the intersection of all three of those things.

Is that still what's happening here?

It is.

And it's kind of our vision as well.

Although we're mainly a, our plans were mainly for bourbon, but this this facility was set up, beautifully to do, craft beers and, single malt liquors.

And, at some point, we're going to jump into all those, we're, we're really kind of focusing in the latter part of 25 here is, to produce some quality bourbon and get it in barrels.

So, a few years down the road that, we can sit in here and have a sip of it, but, we will we will jump into all of those avenues at some point.

We're just we're not now we're wading into the waters, trying not to get in over our head.

The 30,000 square foot facility in downtown Pikeville has a street side peek at the three Vendome copper pot stills, a 350 gallon moonshine still 19 stainless steel fermenters, two traditional cypress fermenters, and beer brewing equipment capable of producing 40,000 barrels annually, plus a gift shop and event space.

What's the five year vision or plan?

Well, this was like the ten year vision.

I'm already standing in the middle of it.

You're an overachiever.

Well, you know, I didn't.

You know, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to figure out how to make it happen or you get out of the way.

And, we were fortunate enough to try to make this thing happen now, so I'm afraid to say what a five year vision is, because the next few steps of this is obviously, I've got to build another distillery at the location.

And, belfry, Kentucky, which is where the mine is located.

And I'm, I've got a 1200 acre property there that's, set up for this.

And so I'm.

I'll have a distillery here in downtown pipeline.

I have a distillery in belfry, Kentucky, and, and we're going to try to get tours and tastings.

And the old coal mine that was, opened in 1913.

Even though the Bourbon Trail doesn't make its way yet to eastern Kentucky, there are many hoping the brothers right arms pike a star on that map.

Now, if you're looking for a trail of a different sort, here's an idea.

When we talk about adventure tourism, for somebody who's like, exactly what is that?

How would you define it?

Well, I think in the definition is a little bit different for everyone.

I mean, for me, you know, I do like, enjoy getting out on, some of the side by side and ATVs and then going out for a day.

It sounds like a plan.

Now, this isn't your granddad's all terrain vehicle.

This is the Cadillac version.

Okay, so what we got right here is a CF Moto U4 Highlander, and, it's the u10 XL, and it's a really neat machine because it's cabin close.

Power windows, power flip windshield.

You've got heat and AC, so we're about to be in comfort if you get cold or if you get oh, we can fix that and adjusted.

These 20 to $40,000 machines as they're called.

Take us on phase one of the Hillbilly Trail system 20 miles south of Pikeville on U-S 23.

Jerry Adkins is the director of the trail system.

He says visitors come from all over the U.S.

to dig their wheels and as do visitors from Canada and Mexico.

This is our phase one is called Flatwoods Trail Hand.

We have over 100 miles of trail here on nearly 6000 acres of land.

Wow.

And how long has this been around?

We're just starting our third year now.

Yeah.

What's the big vision?

Well, we're going to start a phase two on the northern end.

The county.

This is the southern tip of the county where we're at now, Park County and Kentucky.

And land mass is one of the largest in north, if not the largest county in landmass is the Mississippi River.

When we go to the other side of the county, start a second phase.

They're called for.

The thrill of the ride might get your blood pumping, but the sights you see when you put it in park certainly will soothe your soul.

Are you going to be real surprised?

We've got beautiful views, overlooks, rock, great trails, rock formations, just a great variety of things that you'll be seeing.

If you need to stretch your legs on the way to these picturesque overlooks, jump out into these swings made by volunteers to kick up your heels for a while.

You're certainly going to feel like a kid again.

Oh.

Oh, right.

Take you back to childhood.

That's awesome.

It's a lot of fun.

So, Jerry, what does this mean in terms of, like, the tourism economy here to have this trail?

Well, it's Brian bringing in a great amount of tourism dollars and more.

So it's a lot of, county citizens are becoming entrepreneurs since that, as I said, as I know, been open over two years now and we've got about nearly 20 places of lodging people have made, Airbnbs out of rental units.

One campground was completed solely because of this, trail system, hillbilly trails.

We've got two more campgrounds under construction over it on the south trailhead side of the trail system.

ATV parts stores, repair shops going in.

Just a lot of entrepreneurs now that had never had been.

So it's it's helping the citizens, the county also.

You know, I my long term vision is, you know, maybe we can become the Switzerland of eastern Kentucky, maybe not a large development, but, you know, Switzerland is a place that is so beautiful, but also a great manufacturing place with a lot of small manufactories that, that, you know, provide one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Right.

You know, I don't know that we'll get there overnight, but as long as I'm in office, my, my dedication is going to be to to this area that I grew up in.

We had an hour long discussion about eastern Kentucky and the tourism adventures there.

On a recent and special edition of Kentucky Tonight, we also visited Belle and Boyd counties and talked with tourism leaders about the tourism boom in Appalachia.

You can watch that program online on demand at ksat.org/k y. Tonight.