When Daniel Boone first hunted in the Kentucky wilderness in 1767, herds of bison roamed the grassy areas and its forests offered a seemingly unlimited supply of bear, deer, and wild turkey. Two years later he returned with some companions to hunt and trap in this lush, wild country, which he called a second paradise. Many others had explored the region before Boone, but he blazed the trail through the Cumberland Gap and later tried to establish Kentucky as the 14th American colony. Today the bison are gone, and the meager bear, deer, and wild turkey populations survive only through careful restocking. For some time Kentucky has been on the way to becoming an industrial state. Yet Daniel Boone's paradise lives on in the tough, individualistic spirit and strong feeling for tradition that continue to characterize its citizens.
Kentucky was originally a part of the western lands of Virginia. The oldest state west of the Appalachian Highlands, it had its first permanent white settlement in 1775--about a year before Boone brought his wife and teenage daughter to live in the town that was named after him--Boonesborough (now Boonesboro). During the next 15 years the population of the area grew to more than 73,000. In 1792, with the permission of Virginia, Kentucky was admitted to the Union as the 15th state.
Kentucky is a more rural state than Virginia, but its rich manufacturing industry yields more income and becomes increasingly varied with each passing year--as the burgeoning Louisville aluminum industry and the new chemical plants on the Ohio River testify. Yet farming remains vital to the economy of the Bluegrass State. Although tobacco is the leading crop, the scarcity of farm labor has driven many small tobacco farmers out of business. In addition, agriculture is diversifying as many farms change over to crops other than tobacco and total production is strictly limited by the federal government. Coal mining and the bourbon whiskey industry have traditionally been important in the economy.
The state's name probably comes from the Wyandot (Huron) Indian word Kentake, meaning meadowland or prairie. During its pioneer days Kentucky was called the dark and bloody ground for the many battles that took place there between the settlers and the Native Americans. Its major crop has inspired the nicknames Hemp State and Tobacco State. The most popular nickname, Bluegrass State, comes from the unusual long-stemmed grass that grows in various parts of Kentucky and is most abundant in the Lexington-Fayette area.
Kentucky lies in the south-central section of the United States. On the north the Ohio River separates the state from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. To the northeast is West Virginia, which is separated from Kentucky by the Big Sandy River and its Tug Fork. Virginia is to the southeast. To the south is Tennessee. On the west the Mississippi River is the boundary between Kentucky and Missouri. The state's greatest length, from east to west, is 425 miles (684 kilometers). Its greatest width is 182 miles (293 kilometers), from north to south. The area of Kentucky is 40,395 square miles (104,623 square kilometers), with 745 square miles (1,930 square kilometers) of inland water surface.
