KENTON
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 4 — DECEMBER 13, 2024
THE VOICE OF NKY
linknky.com
Big recognition, bigger ambitions for Union winery By Nathan Granger
Y
ou may not know it, but Boone County is home to an award-winning winery and vineyard called Gunpowder Creek Vineyard. This year, the business took home the best red wine award in the Kentucky Commonwealth Commercial Wine Competition for its Norton line of wines. “We entered first in 2020,” said Gena Ward, one of Gunpowder Creek’s partners. “We had 11 wines at the time. We entered 11, and we medaled every one, silver and bronze.” The winery started when Jeff Ogden, the other partner in the business, bought about 1,000 grape plants from Indiana. While Odgen’s family has been farming in the region for three generations, Ogden owned a fabricating shop in Newport for 33 years. Ward owned a barbecue restaurant in Rabbit Hash called the Scalded Hog. Gunpowder Creek the winery has its main growing and production facilities in Union Continues on page 3
The grape fields at Gunpowder Creek Vineyard in Union. Provided | Gunpowder Creek Vineyards
Documentary to explore history of Newport Barracks By Haley Parnell
T
he Newport Barracks site has a layered history set to be laid out in an upcoming documentary.
The site was important to Native Americans before becoming a military camp during the War of 1812 and an outpost during the Mexican-American and Civil wars. Historians say it also served as a key location in America’s westward expansion. Such notable figures as Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Samuel Walker and Robert E. Lee visited the barracks during their military careers. The conversation about the documentary began in December 2023, when Northern
Kentucky University and archaeologists led digs at the barracks site. Haley Snowden, the documentary’s director, executive producer and writer, said the film will start in the late 1700s with the site’s role before the War of 1812. As it works through other wars significant to the site, it will discuss the barracks’ impact on the Cincinnati and Newport areas. “I think these guys have sort of the magic bullet of really telling a story,” said Brian Hackett, associate professor of history at NKU. “I’m excited about their work because we, as historians, tend to talk in books. And the fact is, history is only important when it’s shared with people. The key to public history is all about the audience. How do you make important historical discoveries
relevant to current and modern people?” Hackett, one of the historians interviewed in the documentary, said Gen. James Taylor, who founded Newport in 1795, saw an opportunity when Cincinnati’s Fort Washington closed to bring the base across the Ohio River to Newport. “That made a big difference, and there was a lot of impact,” Hackett said. “It brought people, it brought jobs, it brought commerce. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re actually just kind of speculating and discovering right now.” One thing the documentary tried to capture is the soldiers’ experience. Michael
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