Colonial Sanders and the Jones' - Corbin, KY and Somerset, KY - Day 6

 

 

 



  

 

 

 



  

 

 We began day 6 in the Daniel Boone forest in Corbin, KY after staying at a lodge originally built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and hiking a 1-mile trail. Many of the wonderful sites we have been able to travel to by car or on foot were originally carved out by the CCC. Next, we visited the original Col Harland Sanders Café where by 1940 (after 9 years of experimentation) the original food mass marketer worked out his secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices and a fried chicken cooking process which reduced the cooking time from 30 minutes of pan frying to just around 10 minutes using the newly invented vegetable pressure cookers.

 

We continued on to Somerset, KY where we looked for Kris' family roots on her mother's side. We talked to an old-timer in Dairy Queen who knew of some Jones on Cabin Holler Road off of rte 1247. We did indeed find an old cemetery with a few Jones headstones, and then along Cabin Holler a couple of Jones street signs. Apparently, Kris has some real Appalachian country roots.

 

We then traveled to our final destination in Berea, KY and the Boone Inn and Tavern. Along the way Jay was inducted into the Long Hollow Coon Club, and we saw a billboard using our grandson's image. We ended out day in rocking chairs on the peaceful outdoor porch of the Inn on a beautiful (and much cooler) moonlit night, listening to Dulcimer music played by a group of ladies attending a local workshop of this mountain instrument.

 

1) The CCC was an ingenious public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. This program was part of the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who provided unskilled manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The CCC was designed to provide jobs for young men, to relieve families who had difficulty finding jobs during the Great Depression in the United States while at the same time implementing a general natural resource conservation program in every state and territory. Of their pay of $30 a month, $25 went to their parents.

 

During the time of the CCC, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide and upgraded most state parks, updated forest fire fighting methods, and built a network of service buildings and public roadways in remote areas

 

2) Sanders' Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices is one of the most famous trade secrets in the catering industry. Sanders created the recipe by combining seasoning for sausage with seasoning for stuffing. A copy of the recipe, signed by Sanders, is kept in a safe inside a vault in KFC's Louisville headquarters, along with 11 vials containing the recipe's herbs and spices. According to Yum! Brands, portions of the secret recipe are known by some of its executives, but only two people in the entire organization know it in its entirety, while a third executive knows the combination to the safe.

 

A limited number of KFC employees know the identities of the three executives, that latter of whom are not allowed to travel together on the same plane or in the same car for security reasons. One of the two executives said that no one had come close to guessing the contents of the secret recipe, and added that the actual recipe would include some surprises. To maintain the secrecy of the recipe, half of it is produced by one KFC supplier before it is given to McCormick, who add the second half. A computerized process is then used to blend the mixture.