Formerly: Old Fire Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery · George T. Stagg Distillery
Frankfort, Kentucky · Founded 1870 · Building: 1870 (O.F.C. Distillery era; historic complex includes later buildings)
A National Historic Landmark bourbon distillery in Frankfort, built into a major industrial campus by E. H. Taylor Jr. in 1870.
Buffalo Trace Distillery occupies a Kentucky River site associated with Leestown and early frontier distilling, but its documented modern industrial lineage begins with E. H. Taylor Jr.'s O.F.C. Distillery in 1870. George T. Stagg later expanded the operation, which became the George T. Stagg Distillery in 1904 and Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999. The historic complex received National Historic Landmark designation in 2013.
Hancock and Willis Lee established Leestown along the Kentucky River at or near the site now occupied by Buffalo Trace. The distillery's history identifies this frontier settlement as the setting for early local whiskey-making.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery" and "Our History," accessed September 1, 2026; Whiskey Wash, "Three Historic Milestones of the Buffalo Trace Distillery," June 23, 2024
E. H. Taylor Jr. built and established the Old Fire Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery at the site, creating the core industrial-distillery lineage of the present Buffalo Trace complex.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery," accessed September 1, 2026; Whiskey Wash, June 23, 2024; Distillery Trail, "The Complete Buffalo Trace Distillery Timeline," December 24, 2022
George T. Stagg acquired O.F.C. Distillery and later expanded and modernized its production, warehouses, and aging operations.
Source: Whiskey Wash, June 23, 2024; Distillery Trail, December 24, 2022
The distillery was renamed George T. Stagg Distillery.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery," accessed September 1, 2026; Distillery Trail, December 24, 2022
National Prohibition took effect. The George T. Stagg Distillery was among the small number of distilleries licensed to bottle medicinal whiskey during the period.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our History" and "Prohibition Collection," accessed September 1, 2026; Distillery Trail, December 24, 2022
Buffalo Trace's current history says the George T. Stagg Distillery was among an even smaller group permitted to produce new whiskey from 1930 through 1933.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our History," accessed September 1, 2026
The George T. Stagg Distillery was rechristened Buffalo Trace Distillery.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery," accessed September 1, 2026
The television series Ghost Hunters aired "Distillery of Spirits," a Buffalo Trace investigation featuring the TAPS team and the site's reported haunting stories.
Source: Apple TV, "Ghost Hunters: Distillery of Spirits," season 7 episode 23; IMDb, "Ghost Hunters: Distillery of Spirits"
The Buffalo Trace Distillery complex was designated a National Historic Landmark.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery," accessed September 1, 2026; National Trust for Historic Preservation, "Buffalo Trace Distillery"
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
Buffalo Trace markets itself as America's longest continuously operating distillery and traces site history to Leestown in 1775. The reviewed materials, however, distinguish early frontier distilling from E. H. Taylor Jr.'s O.F.C. Distillery, established in 1870, and do not independently prove a single uninterrupted business, ownership, facility, and distilling lineage across that entire span. The national title remains unresolved rather than documented.
Buffalo Trace's own history says the George T. Stagg Distillery was one of six distilleries licensed to bottle medicinal whiskey during Prohibition, and multiple secondary histories repeat that account. The current source set does not include the underlying Treasury permit file, so the claim is credible but not upgraded to documented.
Buffalo Trace's history says George T. Stagg Distillery was among the still smaller group permitted to produce new whiskey from 1930 to 1933. Other historical summaries distinguish the earlier medicinal-whiskey bottling authorization from later production authorization. Primary Treasury records should be reviewed before treating the date range and permit scope as fully documented.
The distillery reports that the Department of the Interior designated the complex a National Historic Landmark on March 11, 2013, and the National Trust describes it as a rare intact example of an American whiskey-making facility operating before, during, and after Prohibition. Landmark designation establishes the historic importance of the complex; it does not independently settle the oldest-continuously-operating marketing claim.
The distillery has a documented modern haunted reputation and was investigated by Ghost Hunters in 2011. A television episode and witness reports establish that people make paranormal claims; they do not establish that a haunting occurred or confirm the identity of any alleged spirit.
That a crew visited and filmed is usually easy to verify. What they claim to have captured is a separate, and usually lower-rated, claim.
Apple TV and IMDb identify "Distillery of Spirits" as Ghost Hunters season 7 episode 23, aired November 16, 2011, and describe an investigation at Buffalo Trace. The program's reported paranormal observations are not evidence that the site is haunted.
The episode and related summaries document that a television crew investigated reports involving former distillery president Albert B. Blanton and alleged phenomena. They do not verify an apparition, identify a spirit, or establish a paranormal cause.
Everything below has been reported by two or more independent sources — this is an informational record of what's said about this place, not a verified account of paranormal activity. Still Open America doesn't certify hauntings as real.
Visitors and employees have reported seeing an older man, sometimes in or near warehouses, the bottling hall, Stony Point, or a tour group, who then disappears. Accounts commonly identify the reported figure as former distillery president Albert B. Blanton.
Employees, visitors, and the Ghost Hunters program have reported unexplained footsteps, shuffling sounds, voices, and hearing their names called in otherwise empty areas. Reported sounds occur in warehouses, the gift-shop area, Stony Point, and other parts of the distillery campus.
A longstanding Warehouse C story says that a foreman heard a voice warn him twice to move his workers before a wall collapsed where they had been working. Later accounts describe the warehouse as a continuing location for reported voices, cold spots, and unexplained sounds.
The identity of the voice is not established. Accounts sometimes attribute it to E. H. Taylor Jr., but no historical source reviewed confirms that attribution or independently verifies the supernatural explanation for the warning.
Staff and visitors have reported photographs or sightings of young girls near Stony Point and a climbing tree behind the former Blanton residence. Stories sometimes connect the figures to two girls who reportedly lived across the street, but no verified connection to the distillery has been established.
No historical record reviewed confirms the identities of the reported girls or connects them to the distillery property.
Security and visitor accounts describe lights apparently turning on in the gift-shop building after hours, figures or movement seen inside, and footsteps from an upstairs area thought to be empty. Reports also include uneasy sensations and unusual photographs in the building.
Paranormal accounts, including the Ghost Hunters visit, describe sudden cold spots, strange noises, and the sensation of unexplained contact in distillery buildings. These reports are treated as one recurring physical-sensation activity rather than separate named spirits.
Buffalo Trace Distillery has operated as one continuous distillery business since 1775.
The site history reaches to Leestown's 1775 founding and early local distilling, but the documented O.F.C. industrial distillery lineage begins in 1870. The reviewed evidence does not independently prove a single unbroken business identity from 1775 through every later ownership and name change.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our Distillery" and "Our History"; Whiskey Wash, June 23, 2024
Buffalo Trace distilled whiskey continuously throughout Prohibition under one of six medicinal-whiskey permits.
The reviewed materials support that the George T. Stagg Distillery was one of six licensed to bottle medicinal whiskey during Prohibition. Buffalo Trace says it was among fewer permitted to produce new whiskey from 1930 through 1933; the initial bottling permit should not be described as blanket distilling authority from 1920 onward.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery, "Our History" and "Prohibition Collection"; Distillery Trail, December 24, 2022
Ghost Adventures investigated Buffalo Trace Distillery in 2011.
The verified 2011 television investigation was Ghost Hunters, season 7 episode 23, "Distillery of Spirits," aired November 16, 2011.
Source: Apple TV, "Ghost Hunters: Distillery of Spirits"; IMDb, "Ghost Hunters: Distillery of Spirits"
Buffalo Trace survived because the Frankfort site combined river access, bourbon-making infrastructure, and operators willing to modernize it repeatedly. Taylor's O.F.C. investment created a major nineteenth-century distillery, Stagg expanded its warehouses and production capacity, and the site remained connected to legal medicinal-whiskey bottling during Prohibition. Its present legacy is built as much on those industrial transitions and its intact historic campus as on the simpler, harder-to-prove claim of uninterrupted distilling from 1775.
Buffalo Trace Distillery's documented industrial lineage at its Frankfort site begins in 1870, when E. H. Taylor Jr. established the O.F.C. Distillery. The site is also associated with Leestown, founded in 1775, and with early frontier whiskey-making, but that older settlement history is distinct from the later O.F.C. facility. George T. Stagg acquired and expanded the distillery, it took the George T. Stagg name in 1904, and it was renamed Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999.
Buffalo Trace claims to be America's oldest continuously operating distillery, and its current marketing traces site history to 1775. The evidence reviewed here does not conclusively establish a single unbroken distillery business from the 1775 Leestown settlement through the 1870 O.F.C. Distillery and later name and ownership changes. Its Prohibition medicinal-whiskey history is meaningful evidence of continuity, but the national title remains unresolved pending direct comparison and primary-record review.
The George T. Stagg Distillery, now Buffalo Trace, was among a small group licensed to bottle medicinal whiskey during Prohibition. Buffalo Trace's own history also says it was among an even smaller group permitted to produce new whiskey from 1930 through 1933. Those facts support significant Prohibition-era activity, but the underlying Treasury permit records should be reviewed to establish the exact legal scope and output.
This review did not identify a reliable earliest published source for Buffalo Trace Distillery's haunted reputation. The earliest verified public investigation located was Ghost Hunters, season 7 episode 23, "Distillery of Spirits," which aired on November 16, 2011. The existence of that episode documents a modern paranormal reputation and investigation, not a verified haunting or the date the stories first began.
The verified 2011 television investigation was Ghost Hunters, not Ghost Adventures. Ghost Hunters season 7, episode 23, "Distillery of Spirits," aired on November 16, 2011 and featured the TAPS team investigating reported activity at Buffalo Trace Distillery.
113 Great Buffalo Trace, Frankfort, KY 40601
(502) 696-5926
Buffalo Trace publishes visitor tours and reservations online; confirm current tour types, availability, and check-in requirements before traveling.