This year has been unprecedented in many ways, but here in Lynchburg lots of cool things happened for the first time. From a new Jack Daniel’s bottle made the way Jack himself might have made it to a brand new concert series, special needs kids baseball league, and MCHS bass fishing team to a new public art display and a Distilled Spirits Program at Motlow State to train the next generation of whiskey makers, it’s been a year of exceptional events here in Lynchburg.
Here are our list of top six firsts that happened in 2025. You can click the titles to read our original coverage.
1 | Jack Releases 14-year-old Tennessee Whiskey | February 24 was a record-setting day here in Lynchburg as officials at The Jack Daniel Distillery released a 14-year-old age-stated Tennessee Whiskey – something that hadn’t happened around here in over 100 years. Offered at 126.3 proof the barrel proof whiskey, the limited-edition whiskey flew off local shelves and instantly became a coveted collector’s bottle. Only an estimate 24,000 bottles were made. In fact, on Monday, the folks at the Bourbon Podcast named it the 2025 Whiskey of the Year. Just one of many awards we’re sure it will rack up during awards season.
2 | Lynchburg Gets New Concert Series, The Lawn Sessions | There something about Lynchburg that just makes it the perfect spot for live music and in March the first-ever Lynchburg Lawn Sessions came to the historic distillery campus on Friday, May 9 and featured The Huffer Brothers, Hippies & Cowboys, and HunterGirl. It will come back in 2026 but this year’s line up is yet to be released. Stay tuned.
3 | Locals Launch New Baseball League for Kids | All kids deserve to be kids. It’s with that in mind that a dedicated group of helpers decided to partner with a league in a neighboring town to launch a new Babe Ruth League program for kids with special needs called Bambino Buddy Ball. Stephanie Kimbro of the Smith Chapel area helped organize the new league and John LaCook of the Cobb Hollow area coached one of the two teams. In August they played a Border Battle between Moore County and Tullahoma at the Moore County High School Softball Field and the photos from the day showed pure bliss of all involved. They’re looking for sponsored for the 2026 Buddy Ball Program. If you’d like to help, reach out to Kimbro via FB Messenger.
4 | Former Raider launches First-ever MCHS Bass Fishing Team | The year 2025 saw a lot of first for Lynchburg and one of those was the launching of Moore County High School’s first-ever bass fishing team. The new high school sport was spearheaded by former Raider athletic standout Will Baker – who also helped launch the first-ever fishing team at Motlow State – and inspired by former Metro Moore County Property Assessor Darin Harrison who used to host weekly fishing tournaments for friends and acquaintances. It’s open to both male and female students, and competed in their first official events with fall. It’s a fitting legacy for the hometown of Bill Dance.
5 | Lynchburg Gets New Tourism Mural | Like Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis, and Knoxville, Lynchburg is a tourism draw. So, it’s apropos that in 2025 we got a new tourism mural to celebrate our Tennessee Whiskey making legacy. Crafting Whiskey – the first of three murals to celebrate The Lincoln County Process – is located along the Mulberry Creek at he covered bridge at the Retreat at Whiskey Creek tiny home community. Artist Kim Radford painted the mural and the project was managed by public art nonprofit DMA-events, the Tennessee Whiskey Trail Mural Project is part of the Tennessee Whiskey Country Campaign, a collaboration between the Tennessee Distillers Guild and Tennessee Whiskey Trail, South Central Tennessee Tourism Association and the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
6 | Motlow Launches Distilled Spirits Program | Southern, middle Tennessee – particularly Moore, Lincoln, Coffee, and Bedford counties – sits atop a limestone-rich shelf that naturally filters water, making it ideal for distilling. Add to that fact, the region’s rolling hills, cool springs, and abundant corn crops, and it’s no wonder that early settlers both Scotch-Irish immigrants as well as African and Caribbean enslaved people found it the perfect place to lay the groundwork for what would become one of America’s most iconic spirits: Tennessee whiskey. In June, Motlow State launched the Distilled Spirits Program with core classes taking place at a distillery named for another Lynchburg grandfather of whiskey-making, Nearest Green. Classes began again in 2026.
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