The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States, although it is sometimes included, geographically, in the Midwest. In 1792, it became the fifteenth state to join the union. Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that bluegrass is present in much of the lawns and pastures throughout the state. Kentucky is well known for thoroughbred horses, horse racing, local bourbon whisky distilleries, bluegrass music and college basketball.
Albany Ashland Barbourville Bardstown Beaver Dam Berea Bowling Green Brandenburg Brooks Buckhorn Burkesville Cadiz Calvert City Campbellsville Carlisle Carrollton Catlettsburg Cave City Central City Columbia Corbin Covington Danville Dawson Springs Dry Ridge Eddyville Elizabethtown Erlanger Florence Fort Mitchell Frankfort Franklin Georgetown Gilbertsville Glasgow Grayson Greenup Hardin Harrodsburg Hazard Hebron Henderson Hopkinsville Horse Cave Jamestown Kuttawa La Grange Lawrenceburg Lebanon Leitchfield Lewisport Lexington London Louisa Louisville Madisonville Manchester Mayfield Maysville Morehead Mortons Gap Mount Sterling Mount Vernon Munfordville Murray Newport Nicholasville Oak Grove Olive Hill Owensboro Owingsville Paducah Paintsville Paris Parkers Lake Pikeville Pineville Prestonsburg Radcliff Richmond Shelbyville Shepherdsville Slade Somerset Sparta Springfield Taylorsville Walton West Liberty Whitesburg Whitley City Wilder Williamsburg Williamstown Winchester
Kentucky borders states of both the Midwest and the Southeast. West Virginia and Virginia lie to the east; Tennessee to the south; Missouri to the west; and Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north.
The Commonwealth's northern border is formed by the Ohio River, and the western border is formed by the Mississippi River. Other major rivers in Kentucky include the Kentucky River, Tennessee River, the Cumberland River, the Green River, and the Licking River.
Kentucky can be divided into five primary regions: the Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland Plateau in the southeast, the north-central Bluegrass region, the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau, also sometimes termed "Pennyrile" with cities such as Elizabethtown and Bowling Green, the western coal-fields area, and the far-west Jackson Purchase.
Kentucky is the only U.S. state to have a non-contiguous part exist as an enclave of another state. Far western Kentucky includes a small part of land, Kentucky Bend, on the Mississippi River bordered by Missouri and accessible via Tennessee, created by the New Madrid Earthquake.
The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass—the encircling 90 miles (145 km) around Lexington—and the Outer Bluegrass, the region that contains most of the Northern portion of the state, above the Knobs. Much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills.
Major U.S. interstate highways servicing Kentucky include: I-24, I-65, I-64, I-71, I-75, I-264, I-265.
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Kentucky and Missouri are the only two states to share a boundary with no road directly connecting the two states. This is a result of the multiplexing of US Highways 51, 60, and 62 crossing the Ohio River between Illinois and Kentucky, and the multiplexing of US Highways 60 and 62 crossing the Mississippi River between Illinois and Missouri, rather than US Highways 60 and 62 crossing the Mississippi River directly from Kentucky to Missouri.
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