Kentucky

Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

Blue Moon of Kentucky
(song by Bill Monroe)
Eight More Miles to Louisville
Heading Home to Old Kentucky
I'm Longing for My Old Kentucky Home
In the Hills of Old Kentucky
Kentucky Dream
Kentucky Rain
(song by Elvis Presley)
Kentucky Woman
(song by Neil Diamond)
Moonshine Over Kentucky
Sweet Kentucky Lady

Kentucky Symbols

Nicknames: Bluegrass state
Motto: United We Stand, Divided We Fall
Song: My Old Kentucky Home (words and music by Stephen C. Foster)
Bluegrass Song: Blue Moon of Kentucky
Dance: Square Dance
Musical Instrument: Appalachian Dulcimer
Band: Louisville Pipe Band
Wild Game Animal: Grey Squirrel
Horse: Thoroughbred
Bird: Cardinal
Fish: Kentucky Spotted Bass
Butterfly: Viceroy Butterfly
Tree: Tulip Tree (Yellow Poplar)
Former Tree: Kentucky Coffee Tree
Flower: Goldenrod
Fossil: Brachiopod
Gemstone: Freshwater Pearl
Mineral: Coal
Rock: Kentucky Agate

Facts About Kentucky

Capital: Frankfort
Residents: Kentuckians
State Name Origin: from a Wyandot word meaning "plain" or the Iroquois word "Kan-tah-ten" meaning "land of tomorrow"
Admitted to Statehood: 1 Jun 1792
Order of Admission: 15th state
Length: 380 miles
Width: 140 miles
Area: 40,409 square miles
Size Rank: 37
Number of Counties: 120
Streams and Rivers: 49,105 miles
Geographic Center: 3 miles NNW of Lebanon in Marion Co.
Mean Elevation: 750 feet
Highest Point: Black Mountain, 4,145 feet
Lowest Point: Mississippi River, 257 feet
Official Language: English (since 1984)
Agricultural Products: horses, cattle, tobacco
Commercial Products: industrial machinery, electronic equipment, tourism, cars, coal, metals
Average Annual Rainfall: 43.6 inches
Average Winter High Temperature: 36 degrees
Record Low Temperature: -37 degrees (19 Jan 1994 Shelbyville)
Average Summer High Temperature: 80 degrees
Record High Temperature: 114 degrees (28 Jul 1930 Greensburg)
Official Language: English
More information about Kentucky

Kentucky, Wait

(Stella Crafeet Tremble)

Kentucky, wait! I'm coming home
To see the daffodils,
Where dogwood drops its satin blooms
Upon the hazy hills,

Where sheaves of water on a rock
Fall on a wind-bent tree,
Where light and shadow flicker on
In golden harmony.

I'll feel the playful breezes blow
A fragrance from the pine
That clings upon the ridge's crest
Against the timberline.

I'll see the sky-dome sagging
With constellation strain,
Be lulled to peaceful slumber
By the pattering of rain.

Kentucky, wait! I'm coming home
To see such things as these.
No other place does springtime have
Such magic certainties.

Items of Interest

Daniel Boone blazed the Wilderness Trail through the Cumberland Gap, allowing KY to be the first area west of the Alleghenies settled by pioneers.
Cheeseburgers were first served in 1934 at Kaelin's restaurant in Louisville (other places also claim this honor).
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest cave and the second oldest tourist attraction in the U.S. (after Niagara Falls).
The first commercial oil well was on the Cumberland River in McCreary County KY in 1819.
All Chevrolet Corvettes are manufactured in Bowling Green.
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy were born less than one hundred miles and one year apart.
Cumberland is the only waterfall in the world to regularly display a Moonbow. It is located just southwest of Corbin.
More than 100 native Kentuckians have been elected governors of other states.
The song "Happy Birthday to You" was written by two Louisville sisters in 1893.
Teacher Mary S. Wilson held the first observance of Mother's Day in Henderson in 1887. It was made a national holiday in 1916.
Man o' War won all of his horse races except one which he lost to a horse named Upset.
The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the country. It is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville on the first Saturday in May.
Post-It Notes are manufactured exclusively in Cynthiana. The exact number produced annually is a trade secret.
Bluegrass is not really blue but in the spring it produces bluish buds that, when seen in large fields, give it a blue cast.
Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition at Louisville in 1883.
In the War of 1812 more than half of all Americans killed in action were Kentuckians.
Middlesboro is the only city in the United States built within a meteor crater.
The world's largest free-swinging bell known as the World Peace Bell is on permanent display in Newport.
The largest amount of gold stored anywhere in the world (More than $6 billion)is in the underground vaults of Fort Knox.

Notable Natives

Some of these people were born here, others just lived a part of their life in the state.

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) (1942- ) - world heavyweight boxing champion (Louisville)
Alben William Barkley - U.S. vice president (at 71 years he was the oldest vice president when he assumed office in 1949) (Graves City)
Daniel Boone - frontiersman, explorer (buried with his wife Rebecca in the Frankfort Cemetery)
Isaac Boone (son of Daniel) - killed in the last battle of the Revolutionary War fought in KY (buried in the Frankfort Cemetery)
James Bowie - pioneer
Louis D. Brandeis - supreme court justice (Louisville)
John Mason Brown - critic (Louisville)
Kit Carson (1809-1868), army scout, Indian agent
Rosemary Cloony - singer (Maysville)
Irvin S. Cobb - humorist (Paducah)
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) - only president of the Confederate States of America, 1861-1865 (Fairview)
Johnny Depp - actor
Irene Dunne - actress (Louisville)
Crystal Gayle - singer (Paintsville)
David W. Griffith - film producer (Oldham Cty)
Elizabeth Hardwick - author
Casey Jones - locomotive engineer (Cayce)
Ashley Judd - actress
Naomi & Wynona Judd - singers
Arthur Lake - actor (born in Corbin)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) - 16th U.S. president (Hodgenville)
Brian Littrell - singer (Lexington)
Loretta Lynn - singer (Butchers Hollow)
Bill Monroe - songwriter (Rosine)
Carry Amelia Nation - social reformer against rum, tobacco, pornography and corsets (Garrard City)
Patricia Neal - actress (Packard)
Harold ("Pee Wee") Reese (1919- ) - shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers
George Reeves - actor
Kevin Richardson - singer (Lexington)
Wiley B. Rutledge - supreme court justice (Cloverport)
"Colonel" Harland Sanders (1890-1980) - founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (the first KY Fried Chicken restaurant is in Corbin)
Diane Sawyer - television journalist (Glascow)
John T. Scopes, (1900-1970) - defendant in the "monkey trial" in Dayton, TN, charged with illegal teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution, convicted and fined $100
Phil Simms - football player
Adlai Stevenson - U.S. vice president
Allen Tate - poet, critic (Winchester)
Hunter Thompson - author (Louisville)
Frederick M. Vinson - only Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court known to be born in jail (Louisa)
Robert Penn Warren - author (Guthrie)

The Kentucky State Flag
The background of the flag is navy blue. In the center is the state Seal. The two men shaking hands, a pioneer and a statesman, represent all the people of the state. They are acting out the state motto - "United We Stand; Divided We Fall". The Seal is encircled by a wreath. The lower half consists of sprays of blooming goldenrod (the state flower). The upper half has the words "Commonwealth of Kentucky". The flag, adopted in 1918, was amended in 1928 and 1962.

You know you are from Kentucky if...

No matter how much you think you talk normally, when you're up North they all think you talk like a redneck
Your English teacher says things like "Y'all" and "Ain't Got None"
The best restaurant in town is the Cracker Barrel
No matter how bad UK's basketball team is, you still belive they'll pull it off and make it to the Final 4
You still believe the South should be it's own nation
You believe the Civil War was not a far fight
It's not an uncommon site to see a fat man in overalls and a cowboy hat drivin' down the road in a beat up Chevy with a confederate flag hangin' off the back with music from Johhny Rebel blastin' out of his radio
Biscuits, gravy, and grits is your favorite breakfast
Wakin' up with coons and squirrels on your back porch is not an uncommon thing
To you, huntin' ain't killin', its sorta like grocery shoppin'
You own at least 10 country or southern rock CD's
You only own a pair of church shoes and winter shoes
In the summer you don't wear shoes
Even your grandmother chews tobacco
You consider the northern part of the country "The Union"
A rebel flag doesn't symbolize racism to you
Your church parking lot is filled with pickups
The first words out of your mouth every time you see friends are "Howdy!", "HEY!" or "How Y'all Doin'?"
You actually know who Toby Keith, Brooks& Dunn, Keith Urban, Montgomery Gentry, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks, and George Straight are.
A carbonated soft drink is a COKE, regardless of brand or flavor.
You refer to Louisville as "The Ville."
You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Kentucky.