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Kentucky (US: / k ə n ˈ t ʌ k i / ⓘ kən-TUK-ee, UK: / k ɛ n-/ ken-), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Kentucky borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west.
- Frankfort
Frankfort is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kentucky...
- History of Kentucky
History of Kentucky. The prehistory and history of Kentucky...
- Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-most-populous city in the...
- Kentucky General Assembly
The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky...
- Kentucky Bluegrass
Poa pratensis, commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass (or blue...
- Senate
The Kentucky Senate is the upper house of the Kentucky...
- United States Congressional Delegations From Kentucky
Since Kentucky became a U.S. state in 1792, it has sent...
- Kentucky (Disambiguation)
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- Kentucky Supreme Court
Notable cases. In its short history, the Kentucky Supreme...
- Kentucky Colonel
Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by...
- Frankfort
Kentucky is a state in the United States. Its capital is Frankfort. It touches the states of Missouri (by the Mississippi River), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia (by the Ohio River), Tennessee and Virginia. There are many rivers in Kentucky.
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Kentucky, 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 km), and on the southeast, where it shares an irregular, mountainous border with Virginia. Flowing generally northwestward, the Tug and Big Sandy rivers separate Kentucky from West Virginia on the east and northeast. On the north, Kentucky’s boundary follows the Ohio River to the Mississippi, meeting the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois en route. The Mississippi River then demarcates Kentucky’s short southwestern border with Missouri. The capital, Frankfort, lies between the two major cities—Louisville, which is on the Ohio River, and Lexington.
Kentucky was long the home of various Native American peoples before the arrival of Daniel Boone and other European frontiersmen in 1769. Its name perhaps derives from an Iroquois word for “prairie.” By 1792, when Kentucky was admitted as the 15th state of the union—the first west of the Appalachian Mountains—it had drawn nearly 73,000 settlers. By 1800 this number had grown to roughly 220,000 and included some 40,000 slaves.
Kentucky lies within three major physiographic regions of the United States—the Appalachian Highlands (the Appalachian Plateau), 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.
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More than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square km) of the easternmost part of Kentucky lie in the Mountain region, where the state reaches its highest point, at Big Black Mountain (4,145 feet [1,263 metres]), on the border with Virginia. The deeply dissected Cumberland Plateau, which lies to the west of the Cumberland Mountains and the Pine Mountain ridge, is a scenic land of narrow valleys, steep pinnacles, and transverse ridges. Natural passages through eastern Kentucky’s mountain mazes are sometimes provided by water gaps, such as historic Cumberland Gap, and the picturesque Breaks of Sandy. The great eastern coalfields of Kentucky also lie in the Mountain region.
The Knobs is a long, narrow region shaped like an irregular horseshoe, with both ends touching the Ohio River. It embraces the Bluegrass country on its inner side, and it is bounded by the Mountain area on the east and the Pennyrile on the west. The landscape of the Knobs is dotted with cone-shaped or rounded hills that are remnants of escarpments. Thickets of cane grew on some of the lower ground before European settlement and attracted large herds of buffalo and deer. A portion of Daniel Boone National Forest lies in the eastern Knobs.
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Kentucky can be divided into five primary regions: the Cumberland Plateau in the east, which contains much of the historic coal mines; the north-central Bluegrass region, where the major cities and the state capital (Frankfort) are located; the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau (also known as the Pennyrile or Mississippi Plateau ...
Nov 9, 2009 · Learn about Kentucky's history, from its Indigenous origins to its role in the Civil War and beyond. Explore its culture, geography, economy and attractions, such as the Kentucky Derby and bluegrass music.
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Kentucky borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west.
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