Kentucky

The name Kentucky is thought to be of Iroquois or Shawnee origin, perhaps a Wyandot (Iroquoian) word meaning "meadow."

Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State" because of a kind of grass that grows in many of its pastures whose flower heads are blue.

Kentucky's Inner Bluegrass region features hundreds of horse farms. By Peter Fitzgerald

Originally Virginia's westernmost county, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to join the Union on June 1, 1792. It was the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains. 

The state was admitted to the Union after a long and contentious process, as Virginia, from which Kentucky had seceded, was reluctant to lose its western territory. Kentucky's admission was also opposed by some in the U.S. Congress, who feared that it would upset the balance of power between slave and free states. However, Kentucky's supporters argued that the state's admission was necessary to promote western development and to strengthen the nation's defense. In the end, Congress voted to admit Kentucky, and the state became a member of the Union.

Kentucky's early history was shaped by its location on the frontier. The state was home to a variety of Native American tribes, including the Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw. The state was also a popular destination for settlers, who were drawn by its fertile land and its abundance of natural resources. 

While on a trip to New Orleans in 1852, Stephen Foster stopped in Kentucky to visit a cousin's house, called Federal Hill, near Bardstown. There, it is said, he wrote "My Old Kentucky Home." It became Kentucky's state song on March 19, 1928. The state maintains Federal Hill as a memorial to Foster.

The state played a significant role in the American Civil War. Kentucky remained officially neutral during the war, but its population was deeply divided. Soldiers from Kentucky served in both the Union and Confederate armies.

The small Kentucky town of Hodgenville, famous for being the birthplace of President Abraham Lincoln. hosts an annual Lincoln Days Celebration.

There is an enclave of Kentucky cut off entirely from the rest of the state by neighboring Tennessee and Missouri.

Bowling Green, Kentucky's third-largest city, is home to the only assembly plant in the world that manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette. The one-million-square-foot compound was built in 1981, after General Motors decided to move the facility from St. Louis.

In Kentucky, there exists more barrels of Bourbon whiskey (4.8 million) than people (4.2 million).

The Kentucky Derby is held at Churchill Downs near the city of Louisville.

Kentucky is home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States.

With 405 miles of surveyed passageways Mammoth Cave in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park is the world's longest known cave system.

Kentucky has more navigable miles of water than any other state in the continental U.S. Its 1,100 miles of rivers and lakes are second only to Alaska.

Lake Cumberland is the largest artificial American lake east of the Mississippi River by volume.

Lake Cumberland

Fort Knox is a United States Army post in Kentucky south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. Named after Henry Knox, the Continental Army's chief of artillery during the Revolutionary War, it is the site of the U.S. Bullion Reservatory (where the country's federal gold is kept).

In 2014, Kentucky was found to be the most affordable US state in which to live.

By law, each citizen of Kentucky is required to bathe once each year.

Source Mentalfloss.com