Slate Creek

Bath County was once a center of iron production in Kentucky and produced a great percentage of the iron smelted west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the early years of Kentucky statehood. Jacob Meyers left Pennsylvania in 1782 to search for iron ore deposits in the wilderness of Kentucky. He eventually held nearly 10,000 acres along Slate and Mill Creeks and began construction of an iron furnace in 1791. The Bourbon Furnace, also called the Old Slate Furnace, used local ores to produce kettles, plowshares, nails and cookware of such quality that the U.S. Navy contracted the furnace to produce