What Is Kentucky Known For? 22 Things Kentuckians Love About Themselves

Located in the southeastern United States, Kentucky is home to more than 4.5 million people, making it the 26th most populous state in the nation. What do these millions of Kentuckians love about their “old Kentucky home?” What is Kentucky most known for to those outside of the Bluegrass State? Here are 22 things that set Kentucky apart from the other 49 states in the U.S.

1. Horses

Kentucky is famous for its horses. The state is home to the Horse Capital of the World (Lexington) and the Saddlebred Capital of the World (Shelbyville). 

The thoroughbred was named the official state horse of Kentucky in 1996. The state is the top breeder of thoroughbreds in the nation. Police work and equine therapy settings often employ the thoroughbred. Its popularity shines in polo, but its reputation as a racehorse stands out as the most notable.

The Kentucky Derby

The thoroughbred is the only breed that runs in the world’s most famous horse race, the Kentucky Derby. The Derby is exclusively reserved for three-year-old thoroughbreds.

The iconic horse race is held on the first Saturday in May each year. Churchill Downs in Louisville fills with 150,000 spectators who come to watch (and wager on) “The Run for the Roses.” Forbes Magazine listed the Kentucky Derby as one of the “Greatest Bucket-List Sporting Events” in America.

The Derby is much more than just the “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports,” though. It is a two-week festival in Louisville, which includes the largest fireworks display in North America. Over 650,000 people pack the city’s waterfront for Thunder Over Louisville.

Parks and Farms

The state is also home to the Kentucky Horse Park. The 1,224-acre park in Lexington houses the International Museum of the Horse, a Smithsonian affiliate. The park also features an outdoor venue with multiple horse shows each day, along with an indoor arena. Kentucky Horse Park is a theme park, an international equestrian competition site, and a working horse farm all rolled into one. It is a Kentucky treasure that centers on the stated mission of celebrating “the history of our relationship with the horse through education, exhibition, engagement, and competition.”

Along with the Kentucky Horse Park, there are countless other beautiful horse farms in the state. There are over 35,000 horse farms with more than 242,000 horses in the state. Over a million of Kentucky’s 25.4 million acres are dedicated to horses.

2. Bourbon

If horses don’t immediately come to mind when thinking of Kentucky, there’s a good chance bourbon does. Bourbon is a type of whiskey. To earn the title of bourbon, the blend must contain at least 51 percent corn and must undergo aging in charred oak barrels. In short, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.

People often associate Bourbon with Kentucky, the state credited for its creation, despite the murky history of bourbon there. Several contested tales have woven themselves into Kentucky bourbon lore. One such tale credits Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, with bourbon’s creation in the late 1780s. However, it’s more plausible that bourbon developed gradually rather than an individual single-handedly inventing it.

The first documented advertisement for bourbon was in the Western Citizen, a Paris, Kentucky newspaper, in 1821. The name “bourbon” did not become official until 1840, though. Until that time, it was known as Bourbon County Whiskey. 

America’s Native Spirit

In 1964, the U.S. Congress passed legislation declaring bourbon “a distinctive product of the United States.” Through this act, the drink became “America’s Native Spirit.” While the act recognized the history of bourbon whiskey as uniquely American (specifically, uniquely Kentuckian), it also had a more pragmatic purpose. The declaration effectively trademarks true bourbon to the United States, asserting that only distillations within its boundaries can bear the title. Similarly, France has set this rule for cognac and Mexico for tequila. 

Kentucky produces 95 percent of all bourbon, with an annual yield of 5.7 million barrels.

The state’s bourbon heritage is reflected in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. This trail includes 47 stops, stretching from Maysville in the northeast to Hopkinsville in the southwest. 

The mint julep marries two Kentucky icons together: bourbon and the Kentucky Derby. The iced cocktail features bourbon, sugar, and crushed mint. It is widely recognized as the “official” drink of the Kentucky Derby.

3. Country/Bluegrass Music

Kentucky is among the world’s most heralded places for country and bluegrass music. It only plays second fiddle to Tennessee (pun totally intended). 

Kentucky is home to Renfro Valley, often known as Kentucky’s Country Music Capital. This town in the south-central part of the state houses the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. Countless country music legends have performed in Renfro Valley, along with artists from many other genres. 

Kentucky is the birthplace of a long list of famous country music artists, including Country Music Hall of Famer, Loretta Lynn.

Other country stars born in Kentucky include:

• Crystal Gayle
• Ricky Skaggs
• Naomi Judd
• Wynonna Judd
• Grandpa Jones
• Patty Loveless
• John Michael Montgomery
• Billy Ray Cyrus
• Don Everly of the Everly Brothers
• Bill Monroe
• Tom T. Hall
• Greg Martin and brothers Fred and Richard Young of the Kentucky Headhunters
• Sturgill Simpson
• Skeeter Davis
• Tyler Childers
• Chris Stapleton
• Merle Travis
• Keith Whitley
• Dwight Yoakam

In 2001, the state officials recognized the Appalachian dulcimer as the official state musical instrument and honored bluegrass music as the official state music in 2007. “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” penned by Bill Monroe in 1946, holds the title of the official state bluegrass song. Elvis Presley recorded a cover of this song on his debut record, where it featured on the “B” side, while “That’s All Right” dominated the “A” side. The tune was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2002. 

4. Hot Brown

The hot brown is an icon of Kentucky cuisine. Fred K. Schmidt created the sandwich at The Brown Hotel in Louisville in 1926. At that time, 1,200+ people attended the hotel-hosted evening dances. After the guests were tired of dancing in the early morning hours, they would often move to the restaurant for a bite. Schmidt wanted to provide something more than just ham and eggs for these tired and hungry guests, so he created an open-faced turkey sandwich. The toppings of the sandwich included bacon and a Mornay sauce. Then, it got baked until golden brown. Thus, the hot brown was born and has been a staple in Kentucky ever since.

Today, variations of the hot brown sometimes include ham, tomatoes, pimentos, and mushrooms. Food Network, Travel Channel, and PBS have all featured the sandwich on their platforms.

5. Agriculture

Over half of Kentucky’s land is considered farmland. There are 74,800 farms in Kentucky. Sixty-six percent of these farms are family operations. The average Kentucky farm spans 172 acres.

Kentucky ranks first in the nation in non-alfalfa hay production. The state ranks second in tobacco, fifth in goat, eighth in beef cattle, and twelfth in chicken production.

6. University of Kentucky Basketball

If you cut a Kentuckian, don’t be surprised if they bleed blue. Loyalties for the Kentucky Wildcats run deep in this state. 

The UK men’s basketball team is one of the most storied programs in college athletics. The team has the highest winning percentage of any NCAA Division I team in history. The Wildcats also have the most appearances in the NCAA tournament, along with more wins in the annual tournament than any other school.

UK basketball is not just a sport in Kentucky. It is part of a Kentuckian’s identity. If you meet someone in Kentucky that you don’t know, just bring up UK basketball. The conversation will not lag, guaranteed. Also, bonus points if you use “we” when discussing the Wildcats, even if you never played on the team or even attended the university. That’s how ingrained the team is in the state’s collective consciousness. Do yourself a favor, though, and don’t bring up the 2020-21 season when the Wildcats posted nine wins against sixteen losses, the worst record in 100 years.

7. Coal

Coal is mined in 25 U.S. states. Of those states, Kentucky is the fifth-largest coal producer. Coal was named the official state mineral of Kentucky in 1998.

Dr. Thomas Walker discovered coal in what would become the state of Kentucky in 1750. Forty years later, the first commercial coal production in the future state measured 20 tons. The coal was mined in Lee County in east-central Kentucky.

Today, coal is mined in 57 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Twenty of those counties are in the Western Kentucky Coal Field, while thirty-seven lie in the larger Eastern field.

The late Loretta Lynn documented the difficult life of a coal miner. She was born and raised in Butcher Hollow (more commonly pronounced “Butcher Holler”) in Kentucky’s Eastern Coal Field. In her famous autobiographical song “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the country music legend recalled how her father, Ted, “shoveled coal to make a poor man’s dollar” as he “worked all night in the Van Lear coal mines.” The cabin where Lynn was born still stands in Butcher Hollow today.

8. Kentucky Bass

Fishing pumps more than $1.2 billion into the Kentucky economy each year. While anglers can target dozens of fish species in the state, one is so closely aligned with Kentucky that it bears the state’s name: the Kentucky bass. This bass became the official state fish of Kentucky in 1956. After the General Assembly passed the resolution and Governor Albert B. “Happy” Chandler signed it into law, this black bass species quickly became known as the Kentucky bass.

People more accurately refer to the Kentucky bass as the spotted bass. In 1927, scientists identified it as a distinct species, before which people believed the fish was a hybrid of largemouth and smallmouth bass. Many mistake spotted bass for largemouths. However, horizontal rows of small black spots on the lower side and noticeably smaller mouths than largemouth bass correctly identify them.

Kentucky bass do not reach the same size as largemouths and smallmouths. The Kentucky state record for a Kentucky bass weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces. A.E. Sellers of Louisville caught the record fish in Nelson County on June 13, 1970. The state smallmouth record is 11 pounds, 15 ounces, while the largemouth record is 14 pounds, 9.5 ounces.

The Kentucky bass lives throughout the state except in the Mississippi Coastal Plain in the far western reaches of Kentucky.

9. Ale-8-One

Since 1926, Winchester, located in central Kentucky, has been the bottling site for the beverage.

G. L. Wainscott, the creator of this ginger/citrus-flavored soda, debuted his new beverage at the 1926 Clark County Fair. To boost the product’s profile at the fair, he organized a contest to name his new soda. A young participant at the fair suggested that it represented the newest thing in soft drinks, or “A Late One” in the 1920s slang. The packaging cleverly abbreviated the name to Ale-8-One. However, most contemporary Kentuckians shorten the name further to simply “Ale-8” in casual conversation.

Ale-8 contains less sugar and caffeine compared to other renowned soft drinks, but the company guards the exact recipe closely. Rumor has it that only two individuals, the previous and current company presidents, know the precise ingredients. Regardless of its contents, Ale-8 is a distinctively Kentucky refreshment that quenches thirst in a unique way.

10. Louisville and Lexington

There are two cities in Kentucky with populations over 100,000. Louisville boasts a city population of over 628,000 with a metro population of nearly 1.4 million. Lexington has nearly 322,000 residents and a metro population of 517,000.

A couple of things outsiders should know about these Kentucky cities:

Louisvillians are a super-friendly lot, but they may secretly roll their eyes if an outsider mispronounces the name of their city. It’s not Louis-ville or Looey-ville. The name is pronounced Lou-uh-vull, or even simply Luh-vull.

As noted earlier, Lexington is known as the Horse Capital of the World. However, Ocala, Florida, also claims this title for itself. Kentuckians will fight anyone who suggests the world’s horse capital is anywhere other than Lexington. Well, it may not come to actual blows. Kentuckians tend to be “Southern nice.” But no self-respecting resident of the Bluegrass State would let such a claim go unchallenged. If you disagree, well, bless your heart.

11. Auto Industry

While Michigan may be the first state that comes to mind in automobile manufacturing, Kentucky ranks fourth among all U.S. states in car and truck assembly. Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, and Lexus all have assembly plants in the Bluegrass State. Over 85,000 Kentuckians are employed in the automotive industry.

12. Mammoth Cave

Kentucky is home to one national park. Mammoth Cave National Park in south-central Kentucky features the largest known cave system on Earth. Around 426 miles of the cave system have been mapped, but much remains unexplored. There may be upwards of 600 miles of Mammoth Cave that no one has ever seen.

Guests can choose from nearly 20 different cave tours while visiting the park. The tours range from wheelchair-accessible tours to challenging crawling tours. 

Along with the massive cave system, the national park offers nearly 53,000 acres of deciduous forest and river systems. Hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, canoeing, fishing, and camping are all available in the park. Due to its remote location, the night sky is free of light pollution and makes for incredible stargazing.  

13. Beer Cheese

Admittedly this sounds like something that would be more connected with Wisconsin than Kentucky, but beer cheese is a creation of the Bluegrass State.

Beer cheese is a cheese spread made with cheddar cheese, spices, and, of course, beer. IPAs and German lagers are popular choices for the recipe.

Beer cheese was purportedly invented in the 1930s near Winchester, Kentucky (the same town that gave us Ale-8). Winchester hosts an annual beer cheese festival to honor the culinary creation.

14. Kentucky Colonels

The state’s governor reserves the highest honor, the commission of a Kentucky Colonel, for select individuals. Although many recognize ‘colonel’ predominantly as a military rank, this governor-bestowed colonelship is a civilian honor, although military members can equally qualify.

The official website of The Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels states that the community, state, or nation recognizes individuals with the honor of becoming a Kentucky Colonel due to their “noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service.”

Anyone above the age of 18 is eligible for a nomination for colonelship. If the nominee’s merits satisfy the requirements, they might receive a commission as a Kentucky Colonel. The privilege to confer this honor lies solely with the current governor. Of all the honorary colonelcies a governor bestows in the U.S., the Kentucky Colonel is the most recognized.

15. Louisville Slugger

The world’s most famous brand of baseball bat is manufactured in Kentucky. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory allows guests the opportunity to learn about the iconic bat brand. Daily factory tours give visitors the chance to watch as the bats are manufactured.

Legendary baseball players such as Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson, and Hank Aaron all used Louisville Slugger bats at the plate. Today, Major League Baseball stars such as Ronald Acuña, Jr., Cody Bellinger, Christian Yellich, and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. are all “swinging Slugger.”

In addition to the bat factory and museum, Louisville’s Minor League Baseball team is known as the Bats. This Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds plays their games at Louisville Slugger Field in the heart of downtown Louisville.

16. Corvettes

With the abundance of farms in Kentucky, the state’s roads are full of pickup trucks. However, it wasn’t a truck that received an official state designation. Instead, that honor went to a sports car. The Chevrolet Corvette was named the official sports car of Kentucky in 2010.

The iconic Corvette is manufactured in Kentucky. Every Corvette in showrooms around the world today was manufactured in Bowling Green. The National Corvette Museum is also in Bowling Green.

The Corvette is the world’s longest-running, continuously produced passenger car. This classic American sports car has been assembled exclusively in Bowling Green, KY, since 1981.

17. Kentucky Fried Chicken

No list of “what Kentucky is famous for” could be complete without Kentucky Fried Chicken (often known simply as KFC). The company is headquartered in Louisville. The franchise has over 25,000 locations in over 145 countries and territories worldwide. In terms of global sales, KFC is the second largest fast food chain in the world, trailing only McDonald’s. 

The franchise was founded by the late Colonel Harland Sanders. Sanders was commissioned as a Kentucky Colonel in 1950. He embraced the title and began referring to himself as “The Colonel.”

Sanders began selling fried chicken with his famous “11 herbs and spices” in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. That recipe, combined with Sanders’ method of cooking the chicken in a pressure fryer, was a hit with patrons and laid the foundation for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The Sanders Cafe & Museum in Corbin memorializes the location of that original restaurant. Visitors can learn about Colonel Sanders and the history of KFC. And, of course, they can order some “finger-lickin’ good” chicken for lunch (although the company stopped using that famous slogan, citing its incongruity with the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus during the recent pandemic).

18. Streams and Rivers

Kentucky features the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams of any state in the conterminous U.S. Among all U.S. states, only Alaska has more waterway miles than Kentucky.

Kentucky is one of ten states that border the Mississippi River, the second-longest river in the U.S. and the largest by total discharge. 

The Green River is the longest contained entirely within Kentucky, flowing for 384 miles from Kings Mountain to the Ohio River at Evansville, Indiana. The Cumberland River flows for 688 miles and also begins and ends in Kentucky but flows through a portion of Tennessee, as well. 

The Ohio River forms the boundary lines between Kentucky and the neighboring states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Since the river serves as the boundary marker between several states, a common question arises as to which states have jurisdiction over the river. Or, to put it simply, who owns the river? That question has been debated for a long time and even led to legal proceedings. 

Kentucky had long claimed exclusive jurisdiction over the river. Ohio filed suit against Kentucky in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until April 15, 1985, that the United States Supreme Court finally settled the matter, ruling in Ohio’s favor. The court stated that Ohio and Kentucky share concurrent jurisdiction of the river (Ohio v. Kentucky, 471 U.S. 153). Similar rulings were made regarding Indiana and Kentucky (November 4, 1985, Indiana v. Kentucky, 474 U.S. 1) and Illinois and Kentucky (May 28, 1991, Illinois v. Kentucky, 500 U.S. 380, No. 106, Orig.). Sorry, Kentucky. You may have more miles of rivers and streams than any other state in the Lower 48, but you’ll have to share this one.

19. Burgoo

This stew is a staple of the Midwest and particularly the American South. It is a long-standing Kentucky tradition. In fact, two Kentucky cities both claim to be the Burgoo Capital of the World: Lawrenceburg and Owensboro. (Franklin, Illinois also claims this title.)

Burgoo is a slow-simmered stew with meat and vegetables, though individual recipes vary widely. Burgoos can be made with pork, beef, chicken, or lamb. Vegetables can include potatoes, okra, corn, lima beans, tomatoes, cabbage, and so on. Historically, burgoo was made with whatever ingredients were available during tough economic times. Venison was often the main protein in the stew. Other options included raccoon, squirrel, opossum, or whatever else was available.

Burgoo often features heavily in social gatherings and community events in Kentucky. It is also a traditional dish at the Kentucky Derby.

20. Kentucky Bend

Kentucky features one of the oddest state boundary anomalies in the United States. It is found in the area where Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri meet. Kentucky Bend is a small section of Kentucky that is completely encircled by the two other states.

It is known as Kentucky Bend because it lies in a “bend” in the Mississippi River, more accurately known as an oxbow loop. An oxbow loop is a U-shaped meander of a river. 

When the Mississippi River reaches the area near State Route 22 in western Tennessee, it stops its southerly flow and takes a hard turn northward. It flows north to New Madrid, Missouri, and then turns south again and flows on to the Gulf of Mexico.

The land in the middle of this oxbow loop officially belongs to Kentucky. The river that surrounds it to the east, north, and west is the border with Missouri. The land border with Tennessee lies to the south. This small patch of Kentucky land is an exclave. It is completely separated from the rest of the state of Kentucky.

Only a handful of residents live in Kentucky Bend. A Tennessee post office serves these Kentuckians. They live in Kentucky but have a Tipton, Tennessee, mailing address. The closest population center is New Madrid, Missouri. It is a true boundary line oddity that is likely the result of mistakes made by nineteenth-century surveyors.

21. Presidents

Kentucky was the birthplace of the man widely considered to be the greatest president in U.S. history: Abraham Lincoln. He was born on February 12, 1809, near Hodgenville. His birthplace is now a national historic park. Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd, was also a Kentuckian. She was born in Lexington on December 13, 1818.

Ironically, Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, was also born in Kentucky. He was born in Fairview on June 3, 1808. Lincoln and Davis would go on to become the leaders of the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, during the U.S. Civil War. They were born less than a year apart, and their Kentucky birthplaces are only separated by about 100 miles.

Zachary Taylor is the other U.S. president with Kentucky ties. He was born in Orange County, Virginia, on November 24, 1784, but his family moved to Kentucky when he was a young boy. They lived along the Ohio River in the region that would later become the city of Louisville.

Kentucky also features what is believed to be the first town in the U.S. named after George Washington, the nation’s first president. Washington, Kentucky, is a small neighborhood of Maysville in the state’s northern reaches. Seventeen veterans of the Revolutionary War are known to be buried in this community.

22. Famous Kentuckians

While Abraham Lincoln is undoubtedly the most famous person ever born in Kentucky, the Bluegrass State has been the birthplace of a long list of other famous folks, such as boxing champion Muhammed Ali who was born in Louisville.

Other well-known Kentuckians include:

• Kit Carson (explorer)
• Adlai Stevenson I (vice president under Grover Cleveland)
• Diane Sawyer (journalist)
• Jim Bunning (baseball player, congressman)
• John Scopes (educator, defendant in the Scopes Monkey Trial)
• Phil Simms (football player)
• Darrell Waltrip (race car driver)
• Michael Waltrip (race car driver)
• James Morris (professional wrestler, better known as Hillbilly Jim)
• Joey Chestnut (competitive eater)
• Johnny Depp (actor)
• Jennifer Lawrence (actor)
• Ned Beatty (actor)
• Rosemary Clooney (actor)
• George Clooney (actor)
• Jim Varney (actor)
• James Best (actor)
• Jack Harlow (rapper/actor)
• Nick Lachey (singer)
• Chuck Woolery (game show host)

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