Schwäbisch Hall (or Hall for short)[2] is a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg and capital of the district of Schwäbisch Hall. The town is located in the valley of the river Kocher in the north-eastern part of Baden-Württemberg. The first part of the name, "Schwäbisch" refers to the name of the region, Swabia. The most probable origin of the second part of the name "Hall" is a west Germanic word family that means "drying something by heating it", likely referring to the salt production method of heating salty groundwater.[3] The salt mine closed in 1925.[4] Bullitt County is located just 17 miles south of Kentucky's largest city, Louisville. It was created from two counties, Jefferson (Louisville) and Nelson (Bardstown) on December 13, 1796. Bullitt County was named for Kentucky's first Lieutenant Governor, Alexander Scott Bullitt. Settlers had already begun to settle in this area years earlier, due to the wonderful roads laid out by the herds of buffalo, deer and elk that migrated to this area for the salt as the largest lick in Kentucky's history, Bullitt's Lick, named for Captain Thomas Bullitt who found it on a surveying expedition in 1773. Alexander was a nephew of Captain Thomas Bullitt. Famous frontiersmen, Daniel and brother Squire Boone were among many who forged thick forested hills and valleys following buffalo and deer herds to salt licks. Bullitt's Lick was the site of the first commercial industry in Kentucky - salt production. It served all Kentucky, Illinois and Tennessee territories sending salt in barrels down the Salt, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers on to New Orleans. The Wilderness Trail made a meandering turn here in
Salt is the connection
Bullitt County to the Salt Licks, becoming the first inland intermodal distribution system for commerce in the western frontier. Should you travel on I-65, Ky. Hwy. 44, and/or Ky. Hwy. 61 while visiting us in Bullitt County, you'll be tracing parts of that historical trail that led from the Cumberland Gap, in the east, to Bullitt's Lick and on to the Falls of the Ohio in Louisville. Salt, taken for granted today, was a precious commodity to pioneers. Huge continuously burning fires kept row after row of black iron kettles boiling to yield a few bushels of salt each day. The salt was shipped by flatboats on the Ohio River for distribution from Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Commercial salt production in Bullitt County was Kentucky's first industry.