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This article is about the U.S. State; for other uses, see Kentucky (disambiguation).

The Commonwealth of Kentucky became the 15th U.S. state when it was admitted to the U.S. in 1792.

Kentucky and its residents are most well known for thoroughbred horses and horse racing, local bourbon whisky distilleries, bluegrass music and enthusiasm for basketball, particularly for the two principal basketball rivals in the state—the blue and white Wildcats of the University of Kentucky and the red and black Cardinals of the University of Louisville. While Kentucky's pastimes are distinctly those of the South, Kentuckian cuisine is considered to be a synergistic blend of Midwestern cuisine and Southern US cuisine.

Origin of name

It was once believed that the name Kentucky was derived from the Native American word meaning "dark and bloody hunting ground," which is believed to be due to the fact that many Native American tribes went there to hunt in the game-rich forests and often fought each other there. However, it is now most commonly believed that the name Kentucky can be attributed to various Native American languages with several possible meanings from "land of tomorrow" to "cane and turkey lands" to "meadow lands." This last may come from the Iroquois name for the Shawnee town Eskippathiki. The name Kentucky referred originally to the Kentucky River and from that came the name of the region.

History

Kentucky was occasionally used as hunting grounds by roving bands of Shawnee Indians, but there were no permanent Indian settlements by 1750. Kentucky was owned by the colony and state of Virginia. For a while a few settlers tried to set up a colony of Transylvania with its capital at Boonesborough. After 1770, settlers from Virginia and North Carolina came through the Cumberland Gap. Kentucky grew rapidly and was the first major frontier developed west of the Appalachian Mountains. Guns enabled this movement westward, and even the term shotgun was first coined in Kentucky in 1776. After the war, it became Kentucky County, Virginia and ten constitutional conventions took place at the courthouse of Constitution Square in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky delegates accepted Virginia's terms for separation and the state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state in the union and Isaac Shelby, a war hero from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth Of Kentucky.

Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War. For a while it tried to be neutral. In September 1861, Lincoln warned, “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” The Confederates entered the state during the "Kentucky Campaign" of Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith in 1862, but Braggs' retreat following the Battle of Perryville left the state under the control of the Union Army for the rest of the war.The Confederates tried to set up an alternative state government but failed to displace the government in Frankfort, which enthusiastically supported the Union and hunted down rebels. The Presidents of both the United States (Abraham Lincoln) and the Confederate States (Jefferson Davis) during the Civil War were born in Kentucky.

Law and government

The capital of Kentucky is Frankfort and its current governor is Ernie Fletcher (Republican). Kentucky's two U.S. Senators are Jim Bunning (Republican) and Mitch McConnell (Republican). The Kentucky Constitution provides for three branches of government: the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. Kentucky's General Assembly has two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The executive branch is headed by the Governor. See List of Kentucky Governors. The judicial branch of Kentucky is made up of trial courts, called District and Circuit Courts, an intermediate appellate court, called the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and a court of last resort, the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Historically, Kentucky has been very hard fought and leaned slightly towards the Democratic Party. It was never included among the "Solid South." The majority of the state's voters are officially registered as Democrats, although the majority has slimmed substantially in recent election cycles. Kentucky has voted Republican in five of the last seven presidential elections, but has supported the Democratic candidates of the South. The Commonwealth supported Democrats Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996, but Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush won the state's 8 electoral votes overwhelmingly in 2004 by a margin of 20 percentage points and 59.6% of the vote. The most solidly Democratic counties are in the mountainous eastern unionized coal mining region, especially Pike, Floyd, Knott, Menifee, and Breathitt, and the cities of Louisville and Lexington. The Jackson Purchase area in the far west was historically a Democratic stronghold, but has moved Republican recently.

Geography

See also: List of Kentucky counties

Kentucky, also known as The Bluegrass State, borders the Midwest and the Deep South. It touches West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee, but is separated by water from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Its northern border is the low-water mark on the north side of the Ohio River. Its western border is the Mississippi River. Other major rivers in Kentucky include the Kentucky River, Tennessee River, the Cumberland River, the Green River, and the Licking River.

There are five main regions, the Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland Plateau in the southeast, the north-central Bluegrass Region, the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau, also sometimes termed "Pennyrile" with cities such as Elizabethtown and Bowling Green, the western coal-fields area, and the far-west Jackson Purchase.

The largest cities in Kentucky in terms of geographic area are the two merged city/county governments of Lexington-Fayette and Louisville Metro, although Louisville and its metropolitan area both have a much larger population than Lexington and its metro area. Northern Kentucky, an assemblage of smaller cities across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, Ohio, also has a large metropolitan population. The Lexington MSA and the Kentucky portions of the Louisville and Cincinnati MSAs, together, only make up about 45% of the state population, suggesting how rural the state is although 83% of Kentuckians live in MSAs with populations greater than 65,000. Much of rural Kentucky has become suburban during the last decade of the twentieth century.

Interestingly enough, Kentucky is the only U.S. state to have a non-contiguous part exist as an enclave of another state. Far western Kentucky includes a small part of land, Kentucky Bend, on the Mississippi River bordered by Missouri and accessible via Tennessee, created by the New Madrid Earthquake.

Regions

Bluegrass Region The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass - the encircling ninety miles around Lexington - and the Outer Bluegrass, the region that contains most of the Northern portion of the state, above the Knobs.

Significant natural attractions

• Cumberland Gap, chief passageway through the Appalachian Mountains in early American history.
• Cumberland Falls State Park, where a "moon-bow" may be seen in the mists of the falls.
• Mammoth Cave National Park, featuring tours of the world's longest cave.
• Red River Gorge Geological Area, part of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
• Land Between the Lakes, a National Recreation Area managed by the United States Forest Service.
• Bernheim Forest a 14,000 acre (57 km²) arboretum, forest, and nature preserve located in Clermont, Kentucky (south of Louisville, Kentucky, United States).

Economy

The total gross state product for 2003 was $129 billion. Its Per Capita Personal Income was $26,575, 41st in the nation. Kentucky's agricultural outputs are horses, cattle, tobacco, dairy products, hogs, soybeans, and corn. Its industrial outputs are transportation equipment, chemical products, electric equipment, machinery, food processing, tobacco products, coal, and tourism.

Demographics

As of 2005, Kentucky has an estimated population of 4,173,405, which is an increase of 31,570, or 0.8%, from the prior year and an increase of 131,120, or 3.2%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 77,156 people (that is 287,222 births minus 210,066 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 59,604 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 27,435 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 32,169 people.

As of 2004, Kentucky's population included about 95,000 foreign-born (2.3%).

Racially, the population is:

• 89.3% White, non-Hispanic
• 7.3% Black
• 1.5% Hispanic
• 0.7% Asian
• 0.2% Native American
• 1.1% Mixed race

The five largest ancestries in the state are: American (20.9%), German (12.7%), Irish (10.5%), English (9.7%), African American (7.3%).

Blacks, who once represented a quarter of the state's population during the height of the tobacco, cotton, and hemp plantation era, are most concentrated in the southwest (notably Christian County and the city of Paducah), the Bluegrass, and the city of Louisville. "American ancestry" is the largest reported ancestry group throughout most of the state in the Census.

Religion

Religiously, Kentucky is mostly Protestant. The religious affiliations of the state are as follows:

• Christian – 86%
  • Protestant – 70%
    • Baptist – 35%
    • Methodist – 5%
    • Pentecostal – 4%
    • Church of Christ – 3%
    • Lutheran – 2%
    • Presbyterian – 2%
    • Other Protestant – 19%
  • Roman Catholic – 15%
  • Other Christian – 1%
• Jewish 0.01%
• Other Religions – <1%
• Non-religious – 14%

Religious movements were important in the early history of Kentucky. Perhaps the most famous event was the interdenominational revival in August 1801 at the Cane Ridge Meeting house in Bourbon County. As part of what is now known as the "Western Revival" thousands began meeting around a Presbyterian communion service on August 6, 1801 and ended six days later on August 12, 1801 when both humans and horses ran out of food. The service was originally scheduled for August 8th but people began arriving two days earlier on a rainy August 6th. The meeting was hosted by Barton Stone. Presbyterians, Methodists and some Baptist were present as the services were attempted to be interdominational as possible. As the days wore on, some counted as many as seven preachers preaching at the same time from tree stumps or wagons.

Important cities and towns

Population > 1,000,000 (urbanized areas)

• Louisville

Population > 100,000 (urbanized areas)

• Lexington

Population > 10,000 (urbanized areas)

Important suburbs and small towns

Education

Colleges and universities

Private

Public

Community colleges

Professional sports teams

Kentucky is home to no major league sports team, but several minor league teams.

Minor league baseball

• Louisville Bats (Triple-A International League affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds)
• Lexington Legends (Single-A South Atlantic League affiliate of the Houston Astros)
• Florence Freedom (Single-A Frontier League independent)

Football

• Lexington Horsemen (United Indoor Football)
• Louisville Fire (arenafootball2)

Basketball

• Kentucky Colonels (American Basketball Association)

State symbols

• State bird: Kentucky Cardinal
• State flower: Goldenrod
• State tree: Tulip Poplar (formerly the Kentucky coffeetree)
• State horse: Thoroughbred
• State fish: Kentucky Bass
• State wild animal: Grey Squirrel
• State butterfly: Viceroy Butterfly
• State gemstone: Fresh Water Pearl
• State fossil: Brachiopod
• State song: "My Old Kentucky Home" by Stephen Foster (1853)
• State bluegrass song: "Blue Moon of Kentucky" by Bill Monroe (1947)
• State drink: Milk
• State motto: "United We Stand, Divided We Fall"
• State slogan: "Unbridled Spirit"
• See also: Flag of Kentucky

Interesting facts about Kentucky

• Both the president of the USA and Confederate States during the Civil War were born in Kentucky.
• The Old Louisville neighborhood is the largest historic preservation district in the USA featuring Victorian architecture and is also the first place the public viewed Thomas Edison's light bulb. It is also the fourth largest historic preservation district overall in the USA.
• Garrett Morgan, born to former slaves in Paris, Kentucky, invented the red, yellow, green traffic signal as well as the first gas mask.
• The first public library open to African Americans was the Western Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library.
• Mammoth Cave, the world's largest cave is located in Kentucky.
• Rainey Bethea was the last condemned prisoner to be publicly executed in the United States. The sentence was carried out on August 14, 1936 in front of an estimated 20,000 spectators in Owensboro, Kentucky.
• The flat broom was invented by the Shakers in Kentucky at Pleasant Hill Settlement in the 19th century.
• Bourbon whiskey was first produced in Kentucky, purportedly by a Baptist minster, Elijah Craig.
• The University of Kentucky's men's basketball team, The UK Wildcats, are the winningest team in NCAA history.
• The Freedom Bell located in Newport, Kentucky is the largest free-swinging bell in existance.
• Several U.S. Navy ships have been named USS Kentucky in honor of the state. The USS Paducah and USS Louisville also served as naval vessels.
• Famous performers, writers and other artists born in Kentucky include:
  • Ned Beatty (actor)
  • George Clooney (actor, director, producer)
  • Rosemary Clooney (actress and musician; aunt of George)
  • Don Everly, musician and the older of The Everly Brothers (his younger brother Phil was born in Chicago)
  • Loretta Lynn (musician)
  • Bill Monroe (musician)
  • The Stanley Brothers (musicians)
  • Harry Dean Stanton (actor)
  • Jim Varney (actor)
  • Robert Penn Warren (author)
  • Dwight Yoakam (musician)
  • Johnny Depp (actor)
  • John Hensley (actor)
  • Hunter S. Thompson (writer)

See also

• List of famous Kentuckians
• Wikipedians in Kentucky

References

Politics

• Miller, Penny M. Kentucky Politics & Government: Do We Stand United? (1994)
• Jewell, Malcolm E. and Everett W. Cunningham, Kentucky Politics (1968)

The commonwealth's politics remain controlled by the 'good ol' boy network favoring Lexington politics and leaving Louisville in the Twentieth Century.

History

Surveys and reference

• Bodley, Temple and Samuel M. Wilson. History of Kentucky 4 vols. (1928)
• Channing, Steven. Kentucky: A Bicentennial History (1977)
• Clark, Thomas Dionysius. A History of Kentucky (many editions, 1937-1992)
• Collins, Lewis. History of Kentucky (1880)
• Harrison, Lowell H. and James C. Klotter. A New History of Kentucky (1997), the best place to start
• Kleber, John E. et al The Kentucky Encyclopedia (1992), standard reference history
• Klotter, James C. Our Kentucky: A Study of the Bluegrass State (2000), high school text
• Lucas, Marion Brunson and Wright, George C. A History of Blacks in Kentucky (1992) 2 vol.
• Share, Allen J. Cities in the Commonwealth: Two Centuries of Urban Life in Kentucky (1982).
• Wallis, Frederick A. and Hambleton Tapp. A Sesqui-Centennial History of Kentucky 4 vols. (1945).
• Ward, William S., A Literary History of Kentucky (1988) (ISBN: 087049578X)
• WPA, Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State (1939), classic guide

Specialized scholarly studies

• Bakeless, John. Daniel Boone, Master of the Wilderness (1989)
• Blakey, George T. Hard Times and New Deal in Kentucky, 1929-1939 (1986)
• Coulter, E. Merton. The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky (1926)
• Ellis, William E. The Kentucky River (2000).
• Faragher, John Mack. Daniel Boone (1993)
• Fenton, John H. Politics in the Border States: A Study of the Patterns of Political Organization, and Political Change, Common to the Border States: Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri (1957)
• Ireland, Robert M. The County in Kentucky History (1976)
• Klotter, James C. Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950 (1992)
• Pearce, John Ed. Divide and Dissent: Kentucky Politics, 1930-1963 (1987)
• Remini, Robert V. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (1991).
• Sonne, Niels Henry. Liberal Kentucky, 1780-1828 (1939)
• Tapp, Hambleton and James C Klotter. Kentucky Decades of Discord, 1865-1900 (1977)
• Townsend, William H. Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky (1955)
• Waldrep, Christopher Night Riders: Defending Community in the Black Patch, 1890-1915 (1993) tobacco wars

External links

• GenealogyBuff.com - Kentucky Library of Files
• Kentucky Department of Tourism
• The Kentucky Highlands Project
• The Kentucky History Center
• Kentucky Authors and Literature at Southern Literary Review
• Kentucky Obituary Links
• Kentucky: Unbridled Spirit
• Kentucky.gov: My New Kentucky Home
• U.S. Census Bureau Kentucky QuickFacts

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