Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state.
- Always included
- The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recognized region, west of the Tennessee River.
- The Western Coal Fields.
- Included in part
- The Pennyroyal Plateau, locally known as the "Pennyrile", which surrounds the Western Coal Fields and is across the Tennessee River from the Purchase. Most of this region is generally included in "Western Kentucky".
- May also be included
- The western half of the region more commonly known as South Central Kentucky, which significantly overlaps with the Pennyrile.
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or kentucky:
“We hold on to hopes for next year every year in western Dakota: hoping that droughts will end; hoping that our crops won’t be hailed out in the few rainstorms that come; hoping that it won’t be too windy on the day we harvest, blowing away five bushels an acre; hoping ... that if we get a fair crop, we’ll be able to get a fair price for it. Sometimes survival is the only blessing that the terrifying angel of the Plains bestows.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“The pure products of America go crazy—mountain folk from Kentucky or the ribbed north end of Jersey with its isolate lakes and valleys, its deaf-mutes, thieves.”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)