LYNCHBURG, Tenn. - A group of ducks retiring from service at Memphis' Peabody Hotel is moving to Lynchburg.
According to a news release from Jack Daniel's, Peabody ducks generally retire to the farm where they were raised. But in ceremony today, one group will walk down red and black carpets to their new home in a pond just below the distillery's cave spring. There, the ducks will eat the same grain and drink the same iron-free water used to make Jack Daniel's whiskey.
Legend has it that the 80-year-old tradition of letting ducks swim in the Peabody fountain is linked to Jack Daniel's, in a roundabout way. Supposedly, the Peabody general manager left his live duck decoys in the hotel fountain after enjoying a little of the whiskey on a hunting trip.
Jack Daniel's is owned by Louisville, Ky.-based Brown-Forman Corp.