Kentucky

The first state west of the Appalachians, and a border state that stayed in the Union while supplying troops to both sides. Kentucky was hunting ground rather than settled territory for the Shawnee and Cherokee, and its settlement through the Cumberland Gap from the 1770s, marked by Daniel Boone's Wilderness Road, was contested violently enough that it was called the dark and bloody ground. It separated from Virginia and was admitted in 1792. Slavery existed on a smaller scale than in the deep South, with hemp, tobacco and the domestic slave trade selling people south rather than plantation cotton. The state declared neutrality in 1861 before leaning Union; both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born there, less than a hundred miles apart. Coal in the eastern mountains and in the west made and then unmade whole counties, with company towns, black lung and the Harlan County wars of the 1930s and 1970s. Bourbon must by law be made in the United States and is overwhelmingly made here. Horse breeding dominates the bluegrass country around Lexington. Frankfort is the capital. Mammoth Cave is the longest known cave system in the world. Louisville is the largest city. The state is officially a commonwealth. Its name probably comes from an Iroquoian word for meadow land. The Derby has been run at Churchill Downs since 1875. Fort Knox holds most of the country's gold reserve. Kentucky has more navigable river miles than any state except Alaska, and the Ohio forms its entire northern boundary.

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