Dry
Ridge
The Dry Ridge community was apparently so named because of the nearby "Old Church on the Dry Ridge" established in 1791 at Campbell's Block House. Otherwise, any of the communities on the crest of the dry ridge, Hinton, Sadieville, Corinth, Crittenden, Walton or Florence could just as easily been named Dry Ridge. The name was confirmed when the first post office in what would become Grant County was established at Dry Ridge in 1815.
The Dry Ridge Trace, which initially was an Indian trail followed the crest of the ridge. It became a heavily traveled north-south passway for early settlers. Joining and crossing the Dry Ridge Trace at the present town of Dry Ridge was the Big Bone-Blue Licks Trail, a buffalo trail also used by the pioneers. Two nearby settlements would be developed by this traffic pattern; one where the trail to or from Big Bone (today's Warsaw Road, Ky. 467) joined the Dry Ridge Trace (today's U. S. 25). The second settlement, south of the first, would develop where the buffalo trail to or from the Blue Licks (today's Knoxville or Broadridge Road, Ky. 467) joined the Dry Ridge Trace. These two communities are still known by long time residents as the "Upper Ridge" (Knoxville Road) and the "Lower Ridge" (Knoxville Road) and the "Lower Ridge" (Warsaw Avenue and Broadway). This is in keeping with "up to Lexington" and "down to Covington or Cincinnati," which is confusing to visitors and new residents who usually think of south as "down" and north as "up.
Dry Ridge developed as a trading center for the surrounding farming area. Landowners whose farms fronted on the Dry Ridge Trace, known as the Lexington Pike after 1819, establish general stores or taverns, or both, to serve travelers as well as nearby residents. The first records of a sale of a building lot size tract (rather than by the acre) was the purchase in April 1848 of a parcel "36 poles and 19 yards," in the Lower Ridge by the trustees of the James Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church South. This was closely followed in September 1848, when the trustees of the United Baptist Church (now Dry Ridge Baptist Church) purchased a building site in the Upper Ridge. In 1907, a fire in the Upper Ridge destroyed the just completed second Southern Railroad depot, a blacksmith shop, Glover's Warehouse and its tobacco and two homes. The railroad resumed using the still standing first depot until a third depot was completed farther north in the Lower Ridge. Dry Ridge was not incorporated until 1909, the last of the four Grant County cities to do so. Also in 1909 a local creamery company, drilling for fresh water found mineral water instead at a depth of 1,100 feet. An enterprising businessman, J. B. Sanders, built the Carlsbad Springs Hotel as a health resort, named after the healthful waters of Carlsbad, Germany. The word "Springs" was a misnomer. The Dry Ridge water came only from deep wells. Four more wells were drilled by others and other hotels were developed. None were successful business ventures for long, although repeated attempts were mad by various entrepreneurs. In 1927, a disastrous fire destroyed much of the business section of the Lower Ridge including the original Carlsbad Hotel. Some of the rebuilding was delayed by the Great Depression of the '30s and by shortages during World War II. In 1937, Dry Ridge completed a water distribution system supplied with water purchased from the City of Williamstown.
Article from - This is Grant County
Published by The Grant County News
Williamstown, Kentucky