Switzerland County has its origins in the original wine making Swiss immigrants that migrated into the Ohio River Valley in the early Nineteenth Century. These families were an important part of United States wine making history, as they produced the first commercial wines in the nation. New Switzerland The immigrants named their principal town Vevay, after the Swiss town from which most of them originated. The industrious settlers soon turned the hills and valleys of their new settlement, often called New Switzerland, into productive farms and vineyards. Hay Farming Blight ruined the vines and as wine making declined, Switzerland County became a major hay farming region. Hay presses turned out huge quantities of hay to feed the horses that were vital to the agriculture and transportation needs of the era. Switzerland county indiana, vevay indiana, wine making history, new switzerland, indiana history, hay farming, hay press machine

Known as the City of Parks, Louisville has long valued the natural landscape and the provisioning of outdoor recreation. In 1891 Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture, was commissioned to develop an extensive park system for Louisville that eventually included 18 parks and 6 interconnecting parkways. Since that time, Louisville has continued to invest resources to build a first-class park system. Nestled within the Ohio Valley, and bordered by the knobs region to the south and the heavily forested areas of Indiana to the north, Louisville lies at the heart of an endless array of hiking opportunities. Five-Star Trails: Louisville showcases many of the hiking trails and walking paths within the city or within easy driving distance in central Kentucky and southern Indiana. Designed specifically for day trips, this book includes several of the area's most popular parks, as well as many of the lesser-known hiking trails in nature preserves, wildlife management areas, and national forests.