Don is a raconteur brimming with local lore and legend. A new museum dedicated to the mineral and its mining is located at Rosiclare. The Phillips also may direct you to the floating diner moored at the foot of the hill which offers catfish dinners, homemade lemonade and wonderful sunsets over the river. Best known, most spectacular and most easily accessible is Garden of the Gods, located approximately 20 miles north of Elizabethtown. This is rugged, heavily wooded country full of sweeping bluffs and high vistas popular with hikers, climbers and horseback riders.
Anglers fish remote waters such as One Horse Gap Lake.
A cluster of natural sites includes High Knob Vista, Pounds Hollow Lake and Rim Rock National Recreation Trail. Trace the river westward to Golconda, a sleepy river town with a handful of craft shops. It was here that the tragic Trail of Tears crossed the Ohio River as the uprooted tribes of the Cherokee, Creek and Chickasaw nations were herded to reservations in Oklahoma Territory. Starvation and bitter cold claimed hundreds of lives during the cruel trek. One of the best-kept secrets along this stretch of river is the San Damiano Retreat between Golconda and Rosiclare.