7 Things Kentuckians Are Tired of Explaining to the Rest of the Country

Tell someone you’re from Kentucky, and the questions can start fast.

Gold might come up. So might a famous feud.

Here’s what Kentuckians are tired of explaining to everyone who asks.

1. Commonwealth Status

Kentucky is one of four U.S. states called commonwealths, along with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

It’s the only one of the four that wasn’t among the 13 original colonies.

In 2017, a Louisville Public Media listener asked why Kentucky is a commonwealth, the question you may be asking now.

The answer starts with Virginia, which Kentucky was still part of when the colonies declared independence.

Virginia’s founders chose to call their state a commonwealth.

Kentucky’s earlier constitutions used state and commonwealth interchangeably.

The fourth constitution, adopted in 1891, declared in its preamble that the official name would be the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

As for whether the label changes anything, the Law Library of Congress blog finds no legal difference between these commonwealths and the other 46 states.

You can say either one.

2. Dark and Bloody Ground

Kentucky’s name doesn’t mean “dark and bloody ground” in any language, according to the Kentucky Archaeological Survey.

The phrase most likely traces to March 1775 treaty talks at Sycamore Shoals.

There, the Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe reportedly said a dark cloud hung over the land.

The phrase isn’t the name.

You’ll find several possibilities on the list of what the name does mean.

They include an Iroquois word for meadow land and a Shawnee word meaning head of a river.

A Wyandot word for the land of tomorrow is on the list too.

That’s a friendlier possibility.

3. Cincinnati’s Airport in Kentucky

The Cincinnati TV station WCPO titled its explainer on Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) around the question of why Cincinnati’s airport is in Kentucky.

CVG on your boarding pass stands for Covington, not Cincinnati.

On CVG’s about page, you’ll find the airport described as based in Kentucky, serving the Cincinnati region.

Cincinnati’s Lunken Airport, in the Ohio River valley, was prone to flooding.

In 1937, Lunken was 20 to 30 feet under water.

Something had to give.

Kenton County agreed to buy nearly 900 acres, as long as it could own and run the airport.

The land sat 12.5 miles from Cincinnati’s Fountain Square.

Then came the airlines.

American Airlines, Delta, and Trans World Airlines (TWA) left Lunken for what was then called Greater Cincinnati Airport.

The first commercial flights landed there on January 10, 1947.

4. Saying Louisville

In August 2023, a viewer asked the Lexington TV station WKYT why professional TV stations say Lou-ah-vull for Louisville.

The answer is that a lot of locals pronounce it that way.

Louisville was named for King Louis of France, so Louie-ville may be technically correct.

Even so, for some people, Louie-ville signifies you aren’t a local.

Saying Louie-ville still isn’t quite as bad as going to Versailles and calling it Ver-sigh, or Irvine and saying Ir-vine.

Louisville’s visitor center told the Courier-Journal that Lewis-ville is the pronunciation to avoid.

Consider yourself warned.

5. Hatfields and McCoys

The Pikeville-Pike County tourism office says there’s no agreement on how the Hatfield and McCoy feud began.

Its list of possible origins includes a hog dispute, a romance between Johnse Hatfield and Rose Anna McCoy, and Civil War tensions.

It also questions the most publicized version of the story.

For the full picture, it points you to books from recognized historians.

The West Virginia Encyclopedia puts the McCoys mostly in Pike County, Kentucky, and the Hatfields across the Tug Fork in Logan County, West Virginia.

The office adds that many believe the first homicide didn’t come until 1882, when Ellison Hatfield was mortally shot in a fight with the McCoy boys.

That’s later than you’d think.

For the hog story, head to McCarr, where a Kentucky Historical Society marker covers the hog trial in which Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing his hog.

6. Derby-Pie

NPR reported that a letter said Derby-Pie was a federally registered trademark of Kern’s Kitchen in Louisville.

Pie names can be trademarked.

Kern family members are said to have created the pie in 1950 as the signature item for their restaurant, the Melrose Inn.

On its website, Kern’s tells you that if it’s not Kern’s, it’s not Derby-Pie.

The Science Hill Inn changed the name on its menu, and the White Light Diner’s manager says he makes a Kentucky Bourbon Pie.

You might expect bourbon in your slice, but Kern’s recipe has none.

It uses walnuts, not pecans.

7. Kentucky Colonels

The Kentucky Historical Society finds the image of a Kentucky Colonel is most often Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken or a similar image.

That similar image is an Old South-style colonel in a string tie, drinking a mint julep at the Kentucky Derby.

But when you meet a Kentucky Colonel, you're meeting someone the governor has honored.

Governors first appointed colonels as members of their staff.

Now it's an honor.

The governor's office calls the title the highest honor awarded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Today, only a sitting governor can commission a Kentucky Colonel, according to the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.

The governor signs the executive orders that authorize the commissions, and the Secretary of State attests to them.

Fort Knox Gold

The Army's visitor page describes Fort Knox as an Army installation, with the Treasury's Kentucky Bullion Depository located adjacent to it.

The installation covers 108,955 acres across Hardin, Meade, and Bullitt counties.

It's a certified Kentucky city too.

The U.S. Mint says no visitors are permitted at the depository, so you won't see the gold.

As for what's been taken out, the only gold removed has been small quantities used to test its purity during audits.

As of January 2023, the depository held about 147.3 million ounces of gold.

That's a lot of gold.

Union, Confederate, or Neither

Ask which side Kentucky took in the Civil War, and Louisville's Frazier History Museum will tell you its allegiances were divided.

The Kentucky Historical Society's timeline shows Kentucky declaring neutrality in the Civil War on May 16, 1861, with no allegiance to either the United States or the Confederacy.

In September 1861, Kentucky declared full allegiance to the United States.

The next month, Southern sympathizers set up a provisional Confederate government of Kentucky in Bowling Green.

It got complicated fast.