The history and lore of Kentucky is interwoven with legendary figures, stories, and song. A sampling: Daniel Boone, explorer, hunter, and woodsman who cleared the Wilderness Road and founded Fort Boonesborough; James Bowie, who designed the Bowie knife, became a Texas Ranger, and later died at the Alamo; Kit Carson, trapper, scout, and Indian agent; Jefferson Davis, who became president of the Confederate States of America; Carry A. Nation, the Temperance Crusader; Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, the McCoys of the Hatfield-McCoy dispute, and Casey Jones, who became immortalized in song. Singers, musicians, and songwriters have honored Kentucky for generations, from Bill Monroe, "The Father of Bluegrass Music" with his classic
Blue Moon of Kentucky and
My Rose of Old Kentucky; to The Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn, and her
Blue Kentucky Girl; to Stephen Foster's
My Old Kentucky Home, now the official state song of Kentucky.
The word Kentucky comes from the Wyandot Indian name for "plain" in reference to the central plains of the state. The Bluegrass State is also a commonwealth. Kentucky is one of only four states to use this designation. In 1792, when Kentucky became the 15th state -- the first on the western frontier -- both commonwealth and state were used. Kentucky chose commonwealth, meaning government based on the common consent of the people and dating to the time of Oliver Cromwell's England in the mid-1600s.
The other U.S. commonwealths, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, were originally British colonies. Kentucky, once part of Virginia, chose to remain a commonwealth when it separated from Virginia. Kentucky's official insignia was authorized in 1792, six months after it was admitted to the union. The state motto -- United We Stand, Divided We Fall -- is believed to be from The Liberty Song, popular during the American Revolution, and a favorite of Revolutionary War hero and Kentucky's first governor Isaac Shelby.
Kentucky's largest industry groups, based on their contribution to the total state gross product in 1996, are manufacturing; services; finance, insurance, and real estate; retail trade; transportation and public utilities; government; wholesale trade; construction; mining; farming; and agricultural services, forestry, and fisheries. In 1995, Kentucky had more than 4,500 manufacturing firms, which added more than $33 billion to the state's economy.
Located in the south central United States along the west side of the Appalachian Mountains, Kentucky ranks 37th in land size, with 40,411 square miles (104,664 square kilometers). The Commonwealth is bordered by seven states: Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Illinois. The Ohio River flows 664 miles (1,068 kilometers) along the northern and western borders of the state. Kentucky's highest point is Black Mountain in Harlan County, 4,145 feet (1,264 meters) above sea level; its lowest point, the Mississippi River in Fulton County, 260 feet above sea level.
Kentucky Real Estate
Real Estate - US
