Vevay, IN
Switzerland County GA strip on the Ohio River. Vevay (pronounced "VEE-vee") is one of the most beautifully preserved Ohio River towns and was settled by Swiss immigrants in 1801.
133 blocks of preserved 19th-century architecture make Madison a National Historic Landmark District — more than any other small town in America. The town sits in a deep Ohio River valley with limestone bluffs rising on both sides, creating one of the most spectacular river approaches in the Midwest. The Lanier Mansion (1844) is a Greek Revival masterpiece, and downtown is packed with antique shops, river-view restaurants, and Federal-style homes. The Madison Regatta hydroplane races on the Ohio happen each July — viewable from above. Clifty Falls State Park is right at the field with a 60-foot waterfall in a sandstone canyon.
A deep canyon system with waterfalls just above the Ohio River at Madison, IN. Madison itself is one of the best-preserved 19th-century river towns in the Midwest — the entire downtown is a National Historic Landmark district. From the air, the contrast between the canyon's forested gorge and the river town below is dramatic. The Madison Regatta (hydroplane racing on the Ohio) every July is visible and audible from altitude.
Tucked into the hills southwest of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport is the place American paleontology was born. Big Bone Lick is a cluster of salt springs and marshy ground that trapped Ice Age mammoths, mastodons, and giant ground sloths, then preserved their bones — found here as early as 1739. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin both studied specimens from this spot, and in 1807 William Clark, fresh off the Lewis & Clark expedition, ran the first organized vertebrate fossil dig in the country here. A live bison herd grazes the grounds today, a nod to the megafauna that came before. It became a National Historic Landmark in 2024.
Bourbon — America's only native spirit by act of Congress (1964) — must by law be made in the United States, and 95% of it comes from Kentucky. Frankfort and the surrounding Bluegrass region host the densest concentration of bourbon distilleries in the world. Buffalo Trace (since 1773) is the oldest continuously operating distillery in America. Woodford Reserve (1812) sits in the rolling horse country in a National Historic Landmark stillhouse. Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and dozens more dot the landscape. From the air, the iconic white-painted warehouse complexes (where bourbon ages for 4-15+ years) are unmistakable — sometimes called "the most architecturally significant industrial structures in America."