Useful Notes / Kentucky

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The home of two American staples: baseball bats and KFC.

Kentucky, nicknamed the Bluegrass State, is a state in the Appalachian region of the United States, and may variously be considered a part of the Midwest and/or South as well. It is bordered by the states of Virginia and West Virginia to the east; Tennessee to the south; Missouri to the west; and Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north. The Ohio River forms the northern border with all three of the latter states. Its capital is Frankfort in the northwestern part of the state, while its largest city, Louisville^note several pronunciations exist—you'll hear locals call it "loo-ee-vill", "loo-uh-vill, "loo-uh-vuhl", "loo-vuhl", and more. However, pronouncing the "s" is a HUGE Berserk Button for locals., is located on the Indiana border. As of the 2020 census, the state has approximately 4.5 million residents.

History of Kentucky

What's now Kentucky was formerly part of the heartlands of the Mississippian civilization, a highly urbanized pre-contact culture of Native American moundbuilders who are probably most famous for building Cahokia near modern day St. Louis. After the Mississippians disappeared for unclear reasons, their descendants clashed with newer Native nations coming down from the northeast, probably fleeing the rapid expansion of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Kispoko, who later merged with the Shawnee tribe, controlled much of the state around first contact with Europeans — initially the French, then the British. While there were some white settlement efforts prior to The American Revolution, it was beyond the Proclamation Line of 1763, the British imperial edict defining the permissible limits of colonial settlement, which kept the number of Europeans and Euro-Americans very low and limited to individual squatters who could sneak across the border.

All that changed with American independence, as the Treaty of Paris granted all land from the East Coast to the Mississippi River to the new United States — Kentucky itself became a part of Virginia then known as Kentucky County. White settlers flocked there in the thousands, rapidly shifting the demographic balance and forcing many Native American tribes to leave. By 1792, less than a decade after the end of the Revolutionary War, Kentucky County had a white population of around 50,000, enough for it split off from Virginia to become the fifteenth state (after Vermont). Many legendary American frontiersmen, including Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, owed their fame to their exploits in Kentucky, and the settlement of Kentucky provided a precedent and road map for future US expansion. One might say Kentucky, together with Tennessee and the Northwest Territory, formed the "first Wild West."

While Kentucky never attracted the large cash-crop farms of the proper South, slavery of African-Americans still took on prominence. By 1861, around 20% of the population was enslaved. When the slavery issue drove many Southern states to secede, fearing the eventual abolition of the institution, opinion in Kentucky was split, but the state ultimately remained loyal to the Union, becoming one of the four "border states" that maintained slavery but did not secede. However, there was much popular support for the Confederacy, and a Kentuckian government-in-exile operated in the Confederate government. Thousands of Kentucky men fought on both sides of the war (approximately 2-to-1 in favor of the Union), including nearly 24,000 freed slaves. Although most slaves in Kentucky had been liberated by war's end, slavery was not fully abolished until the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1865.

During the industrial age, coal mining became a major linchpin of Kentucky's economy, leading to a strong pro-labor and trade union movement. Miners and labor activists often clashed violently with local and federal authorities, with the Harlan County War being probably the most famous example. Miners' unions became one of Kentucky's most powerful political forces, leading to the dominance of the Democratic Party for decades. However, that trend has since reversed itself, and the Republican Party is now dominant in the state, with a strong majority in the state legislature, both senators, and 5 of 6 House seats.

Culture

One tradition that Kentucky has maintained is the Kentucky Colonel title, a civic honor awarded by the governor. It is not an actual military rank, but it is why Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken was called "Colonel Sanders." If you get the title, you can also add "Colonel" to your name, although most people would probably discourage it due to potential confusion. That Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC, is easily the most famous thing about Kentucky internationally, as it's a widely popular chicken fast food chain with franchises all around the world. (Don't tell anyone that Sanders himself was born in Indiana and didn't live in Kentucky until he was 40 years old—though admittedly he was born in and spent most of his first 40 years in the part of Indiana that is part of the Louisville metropolitan area. Or that even though KFC was developed in Kentucky, the first franchised KFC was in Utah.)

Baseball fans will know Kentucky, specifically Louisville, as the home of Louisville Slugger, the official bat brand for Major League Baseball — it makes up for the city not having any professional sports other than a Triple-A baseball team, a minor-league men's soccer team, and a top-level women's soccer team (yes, soccer). The Slugger brand is owned by Hillerich & Bradsby, which also operates the Louisville Slugger Museum that showcases the bat manufacturing process — this museum is probably the state's most important tourist attraction.

The rest of the state isn't well endowed with pro sports teams either. There are three baseball teams in the lower levels of the minor leagues,^note a Bowling Green team in High-A, plus independent league teams in Lexington and the Cincinnati suburb of Florence top-level women's and minor-league men's soccer teams in Lexington,^note The US has two top-level women's leagues. The Louisville team plays in the more established National Women's Soccer League, with the Lexington team playing in the upstart USL Super League. and the reserve team for MLS' FC Cincinnati, which plays on the campus of Northern Kentucky University instead of its parent's home of Ohio. More recently, Louisville got a minor-league football team in the current United Football League, the Kings, in 2026, which after starting its first season 0–3 start flipped the switch and won the league title.

With the lack of top-level pro sports in the state, college sports are huge—though unlike most states in its general region, the go-to sport is basketball instead of football. The state's basketball fandom is a natural progression from its historic obsession with high school basketball. Kentucky isn't quite as obsessed with it as its northern neighbor of Indiana, but aspects of their basketball infrastructures are very similar. Both states were dotted with schools that were too small to have football teams,^note Six-man football, a big thing in some regions farther west, especially rural Texas, never got traction here. but could field basketball teams. Also, with both states historically having large agricultural sectors, football season generally coincided with the very busy harvest season, but basketball is mainly played during the much slower winter. In turn, both historically had one state tournament for all high schools, regardless of enrollment (which became two all-comers tournaments when girls' basketball became a thing). Indiana split basketball into multiple enrollment-based classes in the late 1990s, but Kentucky never has.

Going back to college sports: The biggest programs belong to the state's two Power Four schools, namely the Kentucky Wildcats (University of Kentucky, in Lexington), and their Arch-Enemy, the Louisville Cardinals (University of Louisville). As you would expect, both are far better known for basketball than football. UK has eight D-I titles, second only to UCLA on the men's side and won under a record five different coaches. U of L has two D-I men's titles (and had a third taken away for massive NCAA rules violations), plus an NAIA title from its pre-NCAA days. The rivalry really wasn't a thing until the emergence of U of L men's basketball as a national powerhouse in the '70s and '80s (with football becoming increasingly competitive by the '90s)—UK stopped scheduling U of L in football and men's basketball in the 1920s, and didn't play against them again in the regular season until 1983 in men's basketball and 1994 in football—but has now come to define the state. There are other Division I programs in the state—the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers (Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green); the FCS Eastern Kentucky Colonels (Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond), Morehead State Eagles (Morehead State University, in the town of that name), and Murray State Racers (Murray State University, also in the town of that name); and the non-football Bellarmine Knights (Bellarmine University in Louisville) and Northern Kentucky Norse (the aforementioned NKU, in the Cincy suburb of Highland Heights)—but all are in UK's very large shadow except for Bellarmine, in the shadow of both UK and U of L.^note Best estimates are that Jefferson County, home to Louisville, is split about 60/40 in favor of U of L fans. Once you're about a half-hour out of Louisville, U of L fandom diminishes greatly. One place where Kentucky arguably outdoes Indiana in basketball is in success and support of programs below Division I. Kentucky Wesleyan, a small D-II school in Owensboro, has more men's natties at that level than any other school, although it hasn't won one since 2001. Also in this century, Bellarmine's men won a D-II natty before going D-I; NKU's women won two D-II titles before making the jump; Thomas More, another NKY school, won two D-III women's natties and one NAIA women's natty (and had a third D-III women's title vacated) before going D-II; and Transylvania, a small D-III school in Lexington,^note UK actually started as a unit of Transy. has a women's natty at that level in the 2020s. At the NAIA level, Kentucky State (a historically black school in Frankfort) won three straight men's natties in the 1970s plus one women's title in the '80s before going NCAA D-II; Georgetown (in the town of that name; not to be confused with the D-I Georgetown in the nation's capital) has three men's titles, two of them in this century; and Pikeville has one men's title.

Kentucky is also famous as the home of the Kentucky Derby horse race, featuring three-year-old male Thoroughbred colts (mostly; fillies [females] and geldings [fixed males] of that age are also eligible). It takes place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and it's probably the best-known horse race in the world. The race attracts viewership and attendance from all around the globe for the whole two minutes it usually lasts. The culture (and gambling) around the Derby is as important as the actual race itself; women with pastel colored, ridiculously large hats sipping mint juleps (Kentucky's state drink) and watching the race are an American pop culture icon. Many a trivia nerd or horse enthusiast will also tell you that the Derby is the first race of the coveted Triple Crown, with the other two being the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore and the Belmont Stakes in Elmont, New York. What's lesser known is that the Derby is the oldest continuously-held sporting event in the U.S., having been held every year since 1875, even during wars and pandemics.^note And the Kentucky Oaks, for three-year-old Thoroughbred fillies and also held at Churchill Downs, is the second-oldest such event, with its first edition taking place two days after the first Derby—though it's long since changed to being held the day before the Derby. Any horse racing media set in the US is bound to at least mention the Kentucky Derby.

Other notable tourist attractions include the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, next door to the plant where Corvettes are made; the site of Abraham Lincoln's birthplace in LaRue County, about an hour's drive south of Louisville; and the notorious Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky, attractions that promote "young-earth creationism", a view of certain fundamentalist Christian groups that interpret the Bible as supporting a 6,000-year-old earth. (That view is controversial even among conservative Christians, and of course rejected by mainstream science.)

Regions

Regional divisions in the state vary widely between residents, government agencies, and geologists. This page will attempt to use the most commonly recognized divisions from east to west, some of which overlap to a greater or lesser extent.

• Eastern Coal Field, often referred to simply as Eastern Kentucky: Essentially Kentucky's portion of Appalachia, with all the tropes thereof. Generally coincides with the geological Cumberland Plateau, plus the fringes of the Appalachian Mountains proper in the extreme southeast. The largest town in the region is Ashland. (Interestingly, Eastern Kentucky University is not in this region, but rather in the (Outer) Bluegrass.)
• The Bluegrass: A geological region, named after the Kentucky bluegrass that's widespread in the region. (Ironically, that grass is native to Europe and was introduced around 1800.) The region is circled by the Ohio River to the north and otherwise by a chain of conical hills known as The Knobs. A significant part of the region is underlain by limestone, which contributed to it becoming a major center of horse breeding and bourbon production.
  • Inner Bluegrass: The central part of this region, focused on Lexington and home to many of the state's horse farms. The state's capital of Frankfort is also in this subregion. You'll often hear the subregion called Central Kentucky, especially in Lexington.
  • Outer Bluegrass: More of a geological term than a popular one, this covers the rest of the region. Louisville is near the western edge of this subregion.
  • Northern Kentucky: Essentially the Kentucky portion of the Cincinnati metro, though the boundaries will vary by speaker. While part of the Outer Bluegrass, this is considered a separate region by locals and non-locals alike, with a significantly German-influenced culture.
• The Pennyrile (more technically the Pennyroyal Plateau): West of the Bluegrass, it's a modestly elevated area that covers much of the southern and near western parts of the state. The name comes from pennyroyal, a common shrub in the area, with "pennyrile" being the local pronunciation. Bowling Green is the region's largest city, but is nowadays seen more as part of South Central Kentucky (see below). The most significant towns apart from BG are the adjacent cities of Elizabethtown and Radcliff at the Pennyrile's edge, with the latter at the gates of Fort Knox; and Hopkinsville, not far from Fort Campbell.
• South Central Kentucky: A loosely defined region that's gained in usage in the current century. It includes some or all of the southern Pennyrile, and by some definitions extends into the fringes of locally defined Eastern Kentucky. Rule of thumb: The closer you get to Bowling Green, the more likely you are to hear the term "South Central".
• Western Coal Field: Centered on Owensboro, and covering a loosely U-shaped area around it, though with more area to that city's west. Historically a major coal mining region, but with the decline of the state's coal industry in this century, the most common term used nowadays is Green River Valley, after the river that drains most of the region. Northern Pennyrile and Northwest Kentucky see some use as well. Other significant towns in the region are Henderson and Madisonville.
  • The region has one geographic oddity—a small chunk of land locally known as Green River Island, lying on the north side of the Ohio River near Henderson. When Kentucky became a state, it was an actual island, but the channel to the north of the island silted up over time, physically connecting said land with Indiana. In the 1870s, Indiana asserted a claim to that territory. Kentucky objected, and the dispute made it to the US Supreme Court, which held in Kentucky's favor in 1890. Today, this tract houses the Ellis Park horse racing track.^note More precisely a "racino", a facility that combines a racetrack and casino; in Ellis Park's case, the only gambling machines are "historic horse racing" machines (a slot machine variant).
• Jackson Purchase, or simply The Purchase: The only region with an intra-state boundary that's clearly politically defined—namely the Tennessee River, which separates it from all counties to its east. It's part of a larger "Jackson Purchase" that includes almost all of what we now know as West Tennessee,^note Modern-day West Tennessee consists of the Tennessee portion of the larger Jackson Purchase, plus the portion of modern-day Hardin County that lies east of the Tennessee River. acquired from the Chickasaw Native American nation in 1818. The "Jackson" part comes from future president Andrew Jackson, who was one of the lead negotiators on the US side. The main town in this region is Paducah.
  • Another geographic oddity, this one part of The Purchase, is Kentucky Bend, a small piece of land surrounded by the Mississippi River on three sides and bordering on Tennessee, making it completely detached from the rest of the state. It can only be accessed by boat from Missouri or by road from Tennessee. Contrary to the urban legend, the Bend's existence was due to a surveying error, not by changes in the course of the river caused by the 1811–12 earthquakes in the general area.

One unique aspect of Kentucky life is that natives regularly define themselves by their counties of origin even if they're from cities, unless they're from the larger ones (mostly, but not exclusively, those mentioned in the listing above) or from Northern Kentucky (in which case they'll most often use that term).

Notable individuals:

• Film and TV
  • George Clooney – Born in Lexington; moved around a few times, first to the Northern Kentucky suburb of Fort Mitchell, then to a couple of places in Ohio, and finally to another Northern Kentucky town, Augusta. Attended NKU but didn't graduate, and then left the state before finding fame as an actor.
  • Johnny Depp – Born in Owensboro, but didn't stay long; the family moved around before settling in South Florida when he was young.
  • D. W. Griffith – Born in Oldham County (now mostly a Louisville suburb), moved to Louisville as a teenager before leaving and eventually finding fame as a film director.
  • Ashley Judd – Born in Los Angeles, but moved around quite a bit with her family, with some of their stops in Lexington and Ashland. Graduated from UK.
  • Jennifer Lawrence – Born and raised in Louisville.
  • Victor Mature – Ditto.
• Literature:
  • Sue Grafton – Best-selling mystery novelist born and raised in Louisville. She would spend her adult life shuttling between Louisville and California.
  • Hunter S. Thompson – Credited as the creator of Gonzo Journalism, he was not only born and raised in Louisville, but grew up in the same neighborhood as Grafton (though he was a few years older). The Ur-Example of gonzo was "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", a story about his experiences during a 1970 visit to Louisville that coincided with the Derby.
• Music
  • Cage the Elephant – The band was formed in Bowling Green, where most if not all the members (most notably brothers Matt and Brad Shultz, respectively lead vocalist/main songwriter and rhythm guitarist) were born and raised.
  • Steven Curtis Chapman – The biggest seller in the contemporary Christian genre was born and raised in Paducah.
  • Billy Ray Cyrus – Born and raised in Flatwoods, a suburb of Ashland.
  • The Everly Brothers – Although their family roots were in Muhlenberg County, in the Western Coal Field/Green River Valley, only older brother Don was born there. Phil was born in Chicago, and the brothers grew up mostly in Iowa before graduating from high school in Tennessee.
  • Tom T. Hall – Born and raised in Carter County, an Appalachian county west of Ashland.
  • Jack Harlow – Born and raised in Louisville.
  • The Judds – Naomi was born and raised in Ashland. Daughter Wynonna was born in Ashland, but the family moved around a lot (see her sister Ashley's description above). They eventually reached Nashville at the tail end of the '70s so Naomi and Wynonna could pursue music careers.
  • The Kentucky Headhunters – Most band members were born and raised in Glasgow, one county to the east of Bowling Green; one was from Louisville. The band eventually formed in another South Central county, Monroe County.
  • Patty Loveless – Born in Pikeville, the seat of the state's easternmost county; grew up in another town in that same county until moving to Louisville as a preteen.
  • Loretta Lynn and her sister Crystal Gayle – Born and raised in Johnson County, in the heart of Appalachia.
  • John Michael Montgomery – Born in Danville, a Bluegrass town southwest of Lexington, and raised in Nicholasville, which was on its way to becoming the southern suburb of Lexington it is now.
  • Montgomery Gentry – Duo consisting of John Michael's older brother Eddie and Lexington native Troy Gentry.
  • Biill Monroe – The "father of bluegrass music" was botn and raised in Ohio County, also in in the Western Coal Field/Green River Valley.
  • Ian Noe – Born and raised in Lee County, also in the heart of Appalachia.
  • Ricky Skaggs – Born and raised in Lawrence County, just south of Ashland.
  • Chris Stapleton – Born in Lexington, but grew up in Johnson County.
  • Steve Wariner – Born in suburban Indianapolis, but grew up in Russell County in the South Central region.
  • Keith Whitley – Born in Ashland to a family that lived in another Appalachian county, Elliott County.
  • Dwight Yoakam – Born in Pikeville, but his family moved up US Route 23 to Columbus, Ohio when he was a toddler, and he grew up there.
• Politics
  • Henry Clay – Born in Virginia, but moved to modern-day Lexington as a young adult and was based there for the rest of his life. His home of Ashland (not the city, but his mansion not far from what's now downtown Lexington) is a notable city landmark.
  • Jefferson Davis – Born near what's now the border between Christian and Todd Counties, in the Pennyrile, but mainly raised in Mississippi, and started his political career there.
  • Abraham Lincoln – Born in today's LaRue County, in the Pennyrile, but raised in Indiana and launched his career from Illinois.
  • Zachary Taylor – Born in Virginia, but raised in and around Louisville, remaining there (when not on military duty) until moving to Louisiana in the early 1820s.
• Sports
  • Muhammad Ali – Born and raised in Louisville.