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:
“So motionless, she seemed stone dead—just seemed:
She was too old for death, too old for life,
For as if jealous of all living forms
She had lain there before bivalves began
To catacomb their shells on western mountains.”
—Edwin John Pratt (1882–1964)
“The head must bow, and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darkey may go;
A few more days, and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,—
No matter, ‘t will never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road:—
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!”
—Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1884)