It dates all the way back to the Whiskey Rebellion IIRC. The distillers moved into that region to avoid paying the Federal excise taxes on distilled spirits.
Happy circumstance let those tax dodgers find some of the finest spring water on the planet. And we are all richer for that.
L
I heard a story once that the civil war era campaign maps of a certain Union Army group didn’t make much sense - zig-zagging all over in pell-mell fashion - till you overlay the location of all the distilleries. Then it makes perfect sense. Don’t know if it’s true or not.