All About Kentucky
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a constituent state of the United States of America. Rivers define Kentucky's boundaries except on the south, where it shares a border with Tennessee along a nearly straight line of about 425 miles (685 kilometres), and on its mountainous southeastern border with Virginia. The Tug and Big Sandy rivers separate it from West Virginia on the east and northeast. From the point where the Big Sandy empties into the Ohio River, the crested northern boundary cuts an irregular line across the country, following the Ohio and meeting the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to the north. Where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi, the short western edge of the state is separated by the Mississippi from Missouri. These boundaries encompass the state's area of 40,410 square miles (104,660 square kilometres). The capital, Frankfort, lies between the two major cities, Louisville, which is on the Ohio River, and Lexington.
Long the home of various Indian tribes, Kentucky was settled by Daniel Boone and other frontiersmen in 1769. Its name probably derives from the Iroquois word for ''prairie.'' By 1792, when it was admitted as the 15th state of the Union - the first west of the Appalachian Mountains - Kentucky had drawn nearly 75,000 settlers.
Kentucky brings to mind images of coal mines, of the bourbon whiskey named for the county where it was developed and is still made, of white-suited colonels and their ladies sipping mint juleps on summertime verandas, of mountaineers and moonshiners, of horse breeding and the Kentucky Derby. Actually, Kentucky encompasses a curious mixture of poverty and wealth, ugliness and beauty, North and South. Several hundred lives have been lost in Kentucky's coal mines, and strip-mining has left countless hillsides to erode. Yet the seemingly endless landscape of white-railed horse pens and paddocks, characteristic of the rolling Bluegrass region around Lexington, symbolizes an unhurried and genteel way of life that looks more to Kentucky's ties with the pre-Civil War South than to its position in the industrial frenzy of the nation. By further contrast, northernmost Kentucky, with its predominantly German heritage and suburban pattern of development, belongs to metropolitan Cincinnati, Ohio. Kentucky has always existed in the middle: as a state looking back and ahead, as a crossroads for westward expansion, and as a split personality during the Civil War. It was the birthplace both of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, and of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States during that strife.
Parts of Kentucky lie within three major physiographic regions of the United States - Appalachian Highlands, the Interior Lowlands, and the Coastal Plain. Within the state, six smaller regions may be identified, based on the underlying rock structure: Mountain, Knobs, Bluegrass, Pennyrile (or Pennyroyal), Western Coalfield, and Purchase. More than 10,000 square miles of the easternmost part of Kentucky lie in the Mountain region, a sloping plateau of the Cumberland and Pine mountain ranges. It is a scenic land of narrow valleys, steep pinnacles, and transverse ridges. The state reaches its highest point at Big Black Mountain, 4,145 feet (1,264 metres) in altitude. An area of deep gorges, natural rock arches, and small valley farms, eastern Kentucky is drained by three major rivers and their tributaries: the Big Sandy, Cumberland, and Kentucky rivers. Natural passages through these mazes of mountains are sometimes provided by winding gaps, such as historic Cumberland Gap, or water gaps, which include the picturesque Breaks of Sandy. The Cumberland River descends from the plateau in the 68-foot Cumberland Falls, renowned for its moonbow, the only known occurrence of this phenomenon in North America.
Kentucky's economy comprises a balance among manufacturing, agriculture, mining, tourism, services, and trade. All regions of the state do not share equally, however. The Bluegrass is an affluent region. The Pennyrile is likewise diversified and prosperous, but economic conditions in the two coal-producing regions fluctuate with the demand for coal. The Purchase relies extensively on agriculture, and periods of drought or depressed crop prices cause the region to suffer. Manufacturing is the greatest income producer for the state.
Kentucky has excellent tourist facilities, especially near the lakes and in the larger cities. Kentucky has one of the finest state park systems in the United States. Several of the parks in the system are resort parks with lodges, cottages, campgrounds, and a variety of recreational facilities. The state also has three national parks: Mammoth Cave, Cumberland Gap, and the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site. A state fair is held in Louisville in August of each year, and Kentucky's counties have annual fairs, festivals, and horse shows. Thoroughbred and harness racing is found at several locations, and the horse farms in the Bluegrass attract many visitors. The Kentucky Derby, held at Louisville's Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of each May since 1875, is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred racing. The Daniel Boone National Forest in eastern Kentucky and the Land Between the Lakes national recreation area in western Kentucky are popular attractions. Kentucky's climate is favourable for outdoor recreation during most of the year. Kentucky has little commercial fishing, but its streams and reservoirs provide excellent opportunities for sport fishing.
Interstate highways cross Kentucky from north to south and east to west. They are supplemented by a system of parkways, U.S. highways, and state highways that make travel by automobile or truck relatively easy almost everywhere in the state. Rail lines connect all major cities for movement of freight. Bulky freight is often shipped by river barge over Kentucky's many miles of navigable waterways. Three major airports - in Louisville, Lexington, and northern Kentucky - serve the central Kentucky area. The Greater Cincinnati airport in northern Kentucky provides international service. Several medium-sized cities have connector lines.
