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Kentucky
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Kentucky: flag Kentucky: seal Kentucky: state bird Kentucky: state flower Political map of Kentucky showing state and county boundaries, major cities, and county seats. Neighboring states-Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri-are labeled around the border. Insets provide a locator map of Kentucky within the United States and a detailed view of the western border region. Several horses graze on green pasture behind a wooden fence at a farm in Kentucky, with trees and a farmhouse visible in the background. Map of Kentucky highlighting its physical features, including major rivers such as the Ohio, Green, and Kentucky rivers, lakes like Kentucky Lake and Lake Cumberland, and regions such as the Cumberland Plateau and Pine Mountains. National parks and recreation areas, including Mammoth Cave National Park and Land Between the Lakes, are marked. Insets show Kentucky's location within the United States and a detailed view of the western border area. State boundaries, major features, and dams are indi Map of the Upper South region of the United States, highlighting states including Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and parts of surrounding states. The map shows major physical features such as the Appalachian Mountains, Blue Ridge, Cumberland Plateau, major rivers, and lakes, along with the locations of national and state capitals and numerous cities. Kentucky: Bluegrass region Aerial view of farmland east of Bowling Green, Kentucky, showing numerous grassy sinkholes and depressions scattered across the fields.
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Several horses graze on green pasture behind a wooden fence at a farm in Kentucky, with trees and a farmhouse visible in the background.
Kentucky summary
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Kentucky: flag
Kentucky: flag

Kentucky

state, United States
Also known as: Bluegrass State
Written by
Wilma Dykeman
Adjunct Professor of English, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. State Historian of Tennessee. Author of The French Broad; coauthor of The Appalachian Mountains and others.
Wilma DykemanAll
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ā€¢History

Kentucky, constituent state of the United States of America. Rivers define Kentuckyā€™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, Kentuckyā€™s boundary follows the Ohio...

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