Fun Facts About Kentucky

Origin of Name
From an Iroquoian word “Ken-tah-ten” meaning “land of tomorrow”

Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State
Bluegrass is not really blue--it's green--but in the spring,
bluegrass produces bluish-purple buds
that when seen in large fields give a rich blue cast to the grass.
Early pioneers found bluegrass growing on Kentucky's rich limestone soil,
and traders began asking for the seed of the "blue grass from Kentucky."
The name stuck and today Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State.

The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the country.
It is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville on the first Saturday in May.

Thunder Over Louisville is the opening ceremony for the Kentucky Derby Festival and is the world's largest fireworks display.

Cheeseburgers were first served in 1934 at Kaolin's restaurant in Louisville.

The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant owned and operated by Colonel Sanders is located in Corbin.

Chevrolet Corvettes are manufactured in Bowling Green.

Cumberland Falls is the only waterfall in the world to regularly display a Moonbow. It is located just southwest of Corbin.

Mammoth Cave is the world's longest recorded cave system in the world,
with over 360 miles explored & mapped and was first promoted in 1816,
making it the second oldest tourist attraction in the United States.
Niagara Falls, New York is first.

The Lost River Cave and Valley Bowling Green includes a cave with the shortest and deepest underground river in the world.
It contains the largest cave opening east of the Mississippi.

The song "Happy Birthday to You" was the creation of two Louisville sisters in 1893.

Teacher Mary S. Wilson held the first observance of Mother's Day in Henderson in 1887.
It was made a national holiday in 1916.

The public saw an electric light for the first time in Louisville.
Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition in 1883.

The radio was invented by a Kentuckian named Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray in 1892.
It was three years before Marconi made his claim to the invention.

The first enamel bathtub was made in Louisville in 1856.

Joel Cheek, the founder of Maxwell House Coffee, was born in the little town of Burkesville Kentucky in 1852.

More than $6 billion worth of gold is held in the underground vaults of Fort Knox.
This is the largest amount of gold stored anywhere in the world.