Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, our mission
is to get past all the simple stereotypes, you
know, the mid -juleps, the fast horses, and really
understand a state that is, I think, one of the
most complex and conflicted corners of America.
We are diving deep into the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
It really is a place that defies easy labels.
Officially, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the
15th state, coming into the Union on June 1st,
1792. But it holds all these simultaneous identities
that... Well, on the surface, they seem to completely
contradict each other. That's the real challenge,
isn't it? You hear the nickname the bluegrass
state and you immediately think of horse racing.
Right. And that name itself comes from a specific
European grass species that just thrives on the
local limestone geology. It's perfect for raising
strong thoroughbreds. Exactly. So you think of
that, you think of the Kentucky Derby, maybe
you think about bourbon and the fact that Kentucky
produces a staggering 95 percent of the world's
supply. Or its incredible natural features like
Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system on the
entire planet. But at the same time, this is
a state whose history is defined by, I mean,
just profound division. It's full of violent
internal struggle and it's got this deeply complex
identity as a border state. And that formal identity
as a commonwealth is a huge clue. It was a deliberate
choice, following Virginia's lead, to emphasize
the general welfare of the people and to distinguish
itself from the old royal colonies. It was a
political statement from day one. And nothing
screams duality like having two official mottos.
You've got the one, everyone knows, united we
stand, divided we fall. It's a call for unity,
very direct. But then you also have the Latin,
Deo gratiam habemus. Let us be grateful to God.
The two seem to... to represent that constant
tension in the state's character, the secular
political struggle on one hand and a deep seated
religious conservatism on the other. They really
do. They capture that push and pull perfectly.
So here is the core mission for you, our listener
today. How can one state be the global capital
of bourbon, a powerhouse of modern manufacturing?
We're talking the fourth largest producer of
autos in the U .S. A huge industrial player.
And yet still be so defined by this complex,
internally divided history, a history of resisting
corporate power and federal control for centuries.
To unpack that question, we have to start right
at the beginning. I mean, down to the name on
the map, because the history of this land is
it's far more complicated and frankly, more tragic
than many people realize. So let's start with
that Commonwealth distinction again. You mentioned
it signals a focus on the public good. Was that
just a philosophical choice or was it? A real
political statement when they were breaking away
from Virginia. Yeah, it had to be a statement,
right? In that revolutionary era. Absolutely.
It was a complete rejection of the old monarchical
system. Kentucky, along with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
and Virginia, specifically chose the title Commonwealth
to signal that its government's authority came
directly from the commonweal, the general welfare
of its people. So it was a way of drawing a very
clear line in the sand, separating themselves
from prior colonial rule. Exactly. It was a profound...
commitment to the ideals of republicanism at
its very core. And even the name Kentucky is
wrapped up in historical mystery and, you know,
disagreement. That part is fascinating because
the true etymology is uncertain. And both of
the leading theories point to massive indigenous
language families, which tells you immediately
that this land was historically contested territory,
not some empty wilderness. OK, so what's the
first theory? One popular theory suggests an
Iroquoian origin. It would translate to something
like on the meadow or on the prairie. If you
look at the Mohawk language, for instance, the
term kenta is very similar. This theory would
relate to those large, open, fertile plains in
the bluegrass region. But there's another possibility.
An Algonquian connection. Yeah. And that one
is often mistranslated. Correct. The second theory
says it comes from an Algonquian language, possibly
Shawnee, from the term Kenta Aki. Now, folk etymology
often translates this as land of our fathers,
but the source material is pretty clear that
Aki just means land in most Algonquian languages.
The first part, Kenta, relates more to the concept
of belonging or ancestral ties. So a name born
from a linguistic struggle, hinting at a deep
human history rooted... Right there in the soil.
Precisely. And that deep histories is exactly
what we need to challenge a very pervasive and
frankly, a deeply flawed historical myth about
Kentucky. OK, this is the crucial part. The myth
that Kentucky was just. A hunting ground. That's
the one. The story that was often used to justify
early European land claims was that Native Americans
never lived there permanently. The story goes
that it was just this vast, vacant territory
that various tribes fought over for hunting rights,
but that it lagged any permanent settlements.
But the archaeological record, which goes back
nearly 12 ,000 years, it just doesn't support
that at all. Not even close. The evidence shows
continuous human activity. We start with the
Clovis culture. Hunter -gatherers who were there
around 9 ,500... BCE, but the real shift happens
around 1800 BCE. That's when you see a definite
gradual move towards agriculture. And by 900
CE, you have complex permanent settlement cultures
in full bloom. And these weren't just, you know...
temporary camps. These were towns. Oh, absolutely.
We can identify two major permanent settlement
cultures from that time. The Mississippian culture,
which was dominant in the west and central parts
of the state, and the Fort Ancient culture, which
was prominent in the east. What were these settlements
like? I mean, how did they sustain themselves
for so long? They were substantial, stable towns.
The Mississippian culture is known for its incredible
architecture, specifically these huge ceremonial
earthwork mounds. That indicates very complex
social and religious structures. And the Fort
Asian culture. The four ancient people didn't
build mounds, but they had these highly sophisticated
and sustainable agricultural systems. They relied
on the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash
grown together. And they weren't just passively
harvesting, they were actively managing the landscape.
What does that mean, managing the landscape?
It means they practiced crop rotation. They would
strategically burn sections of forest to clear
underbrush and encourage the growth of plants
that attracted wild game. And most impressively,
they would strategically relocate their entire
villages every 10 to 30 years. The whole village.
Why would they do that? To allow the local land
and resources, especially firewood, to completely
recover. It was a brilliant long -term sustainability
plan. That level of environmental management,
I mean, that suggests deep multi -generational
roots in the land. So it begs the question. If
these settlements were so permanent, why did
the European settlers who arrived in the 1750s
and 60s find what they thought was a largely
vacant wilderness? And this is where it gets
really interesting. The key is the timeline.
The source material reveals that the massive
abandonment of these large permanent villages
happened before the bulk of European settlement
began. This created the illusion of an empty
land that was only used for hunting. The land
wasn't empty. It had been destabilized. So what
could cause such a swift... and catastrophic
abandonment. It was a brutal convergence of events
in the 17th century long before Daniel Boone
even got there. First, you have the geopolitical
turmoil of the Beaver Wars. The Beaver Wars from
1640 to 1680. What was that about? It was a massive,
bloody conflict between the Iroquois and other
tribes, including the Algonquin -speaking Kispoko
and the Maumee. It was driven by the European
fur trade, a competition for hunting grounds
to get beaver pelts. These wars caused huge displacements,
pushing various groups into the region and escalating
conflict everywhere. But there was a second factor,
a more devastating and often invisible one. Yes.
European diseases often traveled far ahead of
the explorers themselves, moving along indigenous
trade routes. We find European artifacts like
glass trade beads in the archaeological record
in places where no European had yet set foot.
So the epidemics didn't wait for the surveyors?
Not at all. Smallpox, measles pathogens, the
native populations had no immunity to sweat through.
The presence of mass graves suggests these diseases
caused immense demographic and political collapse.
It destabilized their social structures, forcing
them to abandon their large, settled towns. So
where did they go? They had to disperse. They
either merged into smaller, multi -tribal communities
further inland, or just moved away entirely,
getting away from the major rivers, which had
become highways. So by the time surveyors like
Thomas Walker and Christopher Giss were charting
the territory in 1750, they weren't finding a
pristine wilderness. They were finding a region
that had been recently abandoned, scarred by
plague, and was now being contested for hunting
by tribes moving in from the north and south.
It completely reframes the narrative. You have
to replace that myth of a vacant hunting ground
with the tragic reality of a land recently evacuated
due to catastrophe. And that catastrophe created
a power vacuum that Europeans were, well, very
quick to fill. James Herod founded Herodstown,
the first permanent European settlement, in 1774.
And Daniel Boone's famous expeditions through
the Cumberland Gap started back in 1767. And
that settlement was not peaceful. It was characterized
by continuous brutal conflict. The figures are
just shocking. A U .S. government report from
1790 states that 1 ,500 Kentucky settlers had
been killed by Native Americans just in the years
since the end of the Revolutionary War. 1 ,500
people. That just underscores the intense violence
that defined Kentucky's founding years, all stemming
from that contest over land that had been destabilized
but was never ever truly vacant. And that legacy
of conflict, it didn't just disappear with statehood,
it became woven into Kentucky's political and
economic fabric, and it ultimately defined its
very precarious role in the Civil War. Before
it was a state, Kentucky was administered as
the District of Kentucky part of Virginia, and
getting admitted to the Union was a long, difficult
process. It was. It took 10 separate constitutional
conventions in Danville between 1784 and 1792
just to finalize the separation and write the
governing documents. 10 conventions, why so many?
Well, there was a brief pause in 1788 because
the entire U .S. government was in flux. They
were switching from the Articles of Confederation
to the newly ratified Constitution. Congress
basically told them to wait because they didn't
want to admit Kentucky under the old rules. So
they had to wait for the new federal government
to be established. Exactly. Virginia finally
gave its consent again in 1789. Congress approved
statehood in 1791. And Kentucky was officially
admitted as the 15th state on June 1st, 1792.
Shelby became the first governor. And from those
very first moments, the state's economy was inseparable
from the institution of slavery, but in a way
that was different from the Deep South. A very
important distinction. The plantation system
was concentrated in the extremely fertile central
bluegrass region and the far western parts of
the state. But Kentucky didn't have that massive
cotton monoculture like Mississippi or Alabama.
So what were the major crops? They relied on
enslaved labor for large -scale cultivation of
tobacco and, critically, hemp, plus livestock.
Hemp was a huge commodity back then. It was essential.
It was used for rope, for sailcloth, for bagging
things that are vital for the global shipping
and agricultural industries. And Kentucky was
a massive producer. But there was another, much
darker economic function. Yes, the internal slave
trade. Louisville became a major slave market
and a key departure port. Enslaved people were
sold down the Ohio River and then transported
to the burgeoning cotton plantations further
south. So Kentucky's industry wasn't just producing
tobacco and hemp. It was producing human capital
to be sold. to fuel the growth of the Deep South.
That's a critical and tragic point. It gave Kentucky
a unique place in the system. Just before the
Civil War, about a quarter of Kentucky's population
was enslaved, heavily concentrated in those agricultural
and market areas. And this inherent division,
it just perfectly set the stage for Kentucky's
impossible position during the Civil War, a slave
state that tried to remain officially neutral
within the Union. How did that even work on the
ground? The word neutrality was really just a
political fiction. It was meant to prevent the
state from immediately fracturing, but it was
profoundly split. The official state government
in Frankfurt sided with the union, but it wasn't
that simple. Representatives from 68 out of 110
counties, that's over half the Commonwealth,
met in Russellville in November of 1861, and
they passed an ordinance of secession. They weren't
just making a statement, were they? They formed
a real functioning shadow government. They did.
They established a Confederate government. They
designated Bowling Green as their official capital.
And the Confederacy officially recognized Kentucky
as its 13th member state. So you had two governments
claiming to represent the same state at the same
time. Exactly. Confederate forces even briefly
occupied the official capital, Frankfurt, but
they were quickly expelled by Union troops. This
meant the Confederate government of Kentucky
mostly operated in exile, relying on the areas
under direct Confederate military control for
its legitimacy. And the staggering personal irony
of that war. often gets lost. I mean, it's just
incredible. It's the ultimate statement on the
state's division. Not only were both U .S. President
Abraham Lincoln and Confederate President Jefferson
Davis born in Kentucky. But they were born within
100 miles of each other. Right. And you also
have John C. Breckinridge, who was from Lexington.
He had been the youngest ever U .S. vice president.
During the war, he was expelled from the U .S.
Senate for actively supporting the Confederacy
and eventually became the Confederate Secretary
of War. unbelievable. The war literally tore
families and political alliances apart right
up to the highest offices in both warring nations.
Following the Civil War, the conflicts didn't
stop. They just shifted focus, moving from military
clashes to these fierce political and economic
turf wars. The post -Reconstruction era saw two
incredibly dramatic conflicts that just underscore
Kentucky's internal volatility. The first was
straight up political violence in the capital
city. In 1900, Governor William Goebel was contesting
the results of the highly disputed 1899 election.
As he was walking to the state capitol in Frankfurt,
he was shot by an assassin. And he holds the
unique and tragic distinction of being the only
U .S. state governor ever assassinated while
in office. It's a horrifying moment in American
history. Goebel actually died three days after
he was sworn into office by the General Assembly.
His running mate, JCW Beckham, and the alleged
original winner, William S. Taylor, then fought
this legal and political battle for the governorship
that literally paralyzed the state. Paralyzed
how? You had armed militias facing off in the
streets of Frankfurt. It was a crisis that had
to be settled by the U .S. Supreme Court, which
finally ruled in Beckham's favor. That is a level
of political tension that is just. It's hard
to imagine. But even more dramatic in terms of
economic resistance were the black patch tobacco
wars. Unpack this for us. This wasn't just a
peaceful protest. No, this was armed resistance
against corporate control. It happened in western
Kentucky and parts of Tennessee in the early
20th century. Farmers were incensed because these
massive tobacco monopolies, like the American
Tobacco Company, were forcing them to sell their
crops at ruinously low prices. So they formed
an association to fight back. They did. the Dark
Tobacco District Planters Protective Association.
Their goal was to collectively withhold their
tobacco to force the price up. But to enforce
that boycott, a vigilante wing emerged, the infamous
Knight Riders. And their objective was simple.
Force all farmers to join the boycott. By any
means necessary. And their methods were terrifying.
This sounds like organized terror. It was. Under
the cover of darkness, they would ride mask and
heavily armed. They didn't just burn warehouses
owned by the big tobacco companies. They physically
assaulted and threatened farmers who broke the
boycott. They destroyed seed beds, terrorized
families, and essentially created a state of
low -grade civil war across the Black Patch region.
Wait, so the Knight Riders used terror to achieve
economic stability. How are they remembered in
the state? as heroes or as criminals. It's a
very complicated legacy, and it reflects that
deep -seated independence we talked about. At
the time, many struggling farmers saw them as
necessary agents of resistance against these
exploitative monopolies, but their actions were,
without question, criminal. It got so bad the
government had to step in. The violence escalated
so severely, including the burning of large parts
of the cities of Hopkinsville and Russellville,
that the governor had to declare martial law
and deploy the Kentucky National Guard for over
a year to finally crush the Knight Riders and
end the conflict. It remains one of the most
intense, violent examples of economic resistance
in modern American history. With those three
events, the displacement, the Civil War, the
Black Patch Wars, what they really show is that
Kentucky's identity is forged not just in its
geography, but in these fierce, often armed internal
struggles over political and economic control.
And that history of conflict is just inextricably
linked to the land itself. Shifting now to geography,
Kentucky's natural environment defines its industry,
its culture, but its actual boundaries are surprisingly
peculiar. I find the borders themselves fascinating.
Kentucky borders seven states. Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and
Missouri. Only Missouri and Tennessee border
more, with eight. And those boundaries are dominated
by rivers, which creates all sorts of interesting
anomalies. You have a continuous border of rivers
along three sides. the Mississippi to the west,
the Ohio to the north, and the Big Sandy and
Tug Fork to the east. But the Ohio River border,
that's a classic deep dive fact that trips everyone
up. It causes all sorts of jurisdictional headaches.
It does, because the northern boundary of Kentucky
is not the middle of the Ohio River like you'd
expect. Instead, the border follows the north
shore of the Ohio River as it existed back in
1792. Based on the original Virginia charter.
So if the river course changes over time, the
border doesn't. Exactly. That historical quirk
means that sometimes when you cross the Ohio
River going north from Kentucky into what should
be Indiana or Ohio, you're often technically
still in Kentucky. It's led to centuries of legal
battles over things like taxation, fishing rights,
even criminal jurisdiction. And that explains
the Ellis Park anomaly, right? Yeah. The racetrack.
Precisely. Ellis Park is physically located in
Henderson, Kentucky. but it sits in a small piece
of Kentucky land that juts out into Indiana territory
after you cross the river. It's a logistical
oddity caused by a 230 -year -old boundary line.
And then there's the truly bizarre part of the
state, the non -contiguous section you can only
get to by driving through two other states. That
would be the Kentucky Bend in the far west corner.
It's an exclave of Fulton County, completely
surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee. It exists
because of a massive meander in the Mississippi
River, but its specific status as an exclave
is the result of a surveying error from the early
19th century. A lot of people assume that was
caused by the massive New Madrid earthquakes
in 1811 and 1812. That's a common misconception,
and it's understandable. I mean, those quakes
were so strong, they temporarily caused the Mississippi
River to flow backward in some places. Unbelievable.
But the source material is clear that the Kentucky
Bend's existence is tied to that earlier surveying
error, though the quakes absolutely reshaped
the topography and society of that entire region.
So let's break down the land itself. We know
the geology supports the bourbon and horses.
But the state is divided into five very distinct
regions. We can start in the east with the Cumberland
Plateau, which is mostly known as the eastern
coal field. It's part of the larger Appalachian
Mountain system. Then moving west, we hit the
north -central bluegrass region, the heartland
with the major cities and the capital. Okay,
that's two. South and central, you have the Pennyroyal
Plateau, or Penny Ryle. Further west is the western
coal field. And finally, the far western Jackson
Purchase. When you talk about the Jackson Purchase,
you have to mention the Mississippian Embayment.
What exactly is that? It's really important for
context. The Jackson Purchase is the northernmost
part of a geological feature called the Mississippian
Embayment. The simplest way to think of it is
as a massive flat alluvial plain. It's essentially
the ancient seabed of a Gulf of Mexico inlet
that stretched far inland millions of years ago.
So it's defined by that rich soil left by the
river. Exactly. Deep soil deposits, which makes
it very different from the limestone bedrock
that defines the bluegrass region. And the bluegrass
region itself isn't just one big uniform area,
which seems a little counterintuitive. No, it's
split into the inner bluegrass, which is that
incredibly fertile area right around Lexington,
and the outer bluegrass. A big part of the outer
bluegrass is in a sub -region called the Eden
Shale Hills, which has these short, steep, narrow
hills that are much harder to farm. Water is
another defining characteristic. We mentioned
the caves, but the sheer volume of water is incredible.
The landscape is porous. It's defined by what's
called karst topography. That's the soluble limestone
that creates sinkholes and, of course, Mammoth
Cave. Kentucky has the second most navigable
miles of water in the contiguous U .S., over
90 ,000 miles of streams and rivers. It's a waterlogged,
carved out landscape. And the manmade lakes are
equally impressive. They dominate the eastern
U .S. They absolutely do. Kentucky is home to
the two largest artificial lakes east of the
Mississippi. Kentucky Lake, created by damming
the Tennessee River, is the largest by surface
area. It has an astonishing 2 ,064 miles of shoreline.
And Lake Cumberland on the Cumberland River is
the largest by volume. It provides massive flood
control and recreation space for the entire region.
Beyond just the sheer scale of the water, the
natural attractions are globally significant.
Of course, you have Mammoth Cave National Park
with the world's longest cave system. But then
you have these two dramatic surface features.
Break Center State Park, which is often called
the Grand Canyon of the South. It's a deep gorge
between Kentucky and Virginia. And Cumberland
Falls. Cumberland Falls, yes. Home of the moon
bow. The moon bow. It's the only place in the
entire Western Hemisphere where a moon bow, a
nocturnal rainbow, can be regularly seen under
a full moon created by the constant spray from
the falls. It's a completely unique natural phenomenon.
Let's connect this landscape back to human action.
You mentioned a remarkable story. of conservation
success that really shows Kentucky's dedication
to stewardship, despite its industrial past.
It's a fantastic story. Kentucky is the site
of two of the most successful large -scale wildlife
reintroduction projects in U .S. history. First,
the elk herd. Which had been gone for a long
time. Extirpated from the area for over 150 years
due to overhunting and habitat loss, they started
restocking them in 1997, mostly in the eastern
Coalfield region. By 2009, the herd had exploded
to 10 ,000 animals, making it the largest wild
elk herd east of the Mississippi. 10 ,000 elk
thriving in a region known for coal mining. That's
an incredible turnaround. And the story of the
wild turkeys is just as impressive. They were
nearly extinct in the 1950s, fewer than 900 birds
left in the entire state. Through stocking and
management efforts, the population rebounded
completely. A record take of over 29 ,000 birds
was reported in 2009. It really shows a modern
commitment to environmental stewardship, especially
when you consider all the historic pressures
from industries like coal. We can transition
now to... the pillars that support the modern
economy. If the land is defined by geology and
water, the economy is defined by manufacturing,
distribution, and a very, very famous spirit.
Right. Kentucky has really diversified beyond
just its traditional agrarian and coal extraction
routes. It's become a critical player in modern
global manufacturing and logistics. Auto alley
is a term that immediately comes to mind. Yes,
it's deeply embedded in the U .S. auto industry.
Kentucky ranks fourth among all U .S. states
in the of automobiles and trucks. This is heavy
duty manufacturing. We're talking about specific,
very popular vehicles. The Toyota Camry, one
of the best selling cars in America, is manufactured
in Georgetown. And the 4F series, which has been
the best selling truck in the U .S. for decades,
is made in Louisville. That level of manufacturing
means Kentucky's economic stability is just intrinsically
linked to the global auto supply chain. Which
is a modern contradiction to that historical
sense of independence we were talking about earlier.
It is. But the other major pillar, the one everyone
knows, is bourbon. And the facts here are truly
staggering. The bourbon boom. It's undeniable,
and it's deeply rooted in that geology. Kentucky
produces 95 % of the world's supply of bourbon
whiskey. The specific karst topography, that
limestone that filters impurities like iron out
of the water, that's what gives it its distinct
flavor. It's why the industry is so entrenched
there. And the barrel to person ratio is the
ultimate hook. It's unbelievable. The most astonishing
statistic is that the number of aging bourbon
barrels in Kentucky, currently over 5 .7 million,
actually exceeds the state's total population
of about 4 .6 million people. That's staggering.
It means... Statistically, there is more stored
wealth in aging whiskey than there are people
living there. That must drive the state's financial
stability in a really unique way. It creates
enormous leverage. And that dominance is actually
locked into the state by a unique... tax structure.
Kentucky is one of the only places that still
applies an inventory tax on those aging barrels.
So they have to pay tax on the inventory while
it ages. Yes, which gives the distillers a massive
financial incentive to keep it aging and eventually
bottle it within Kentucky, essentially guaranteeing
the state remains the bourbon capital forever.
And the production growth is phenomenal. It soared
by 170 percent just between 1999 and 2015. Today,
the burn trail and all the related businesses
support over 20 ,000 and jobs in the state. Now,
moving to the opposite end of the spectrum, you
have energy and federal institutions. They still
hold huge sway, even with the decline of coal.
Right. Historically, coal was vital, but that
industry has been in sharp decline since the
1980s. However, federal institutions provide
a massive economic anchor. We're talking about
Fort Knox, which is, of course, famous for housing
a large portion of the U .S. gold reserves. But
Fort Knox is more than just a vault. Much more.
It's also home to the state's largest office
building, the Army Human Resource Center of Excellence,
which employs nearly 4 ,300 soldiers and civilians.
Its federal payroll is a massive, consistent
economic engine for that region. And the state
had a huge, highly specialized role in the nuclear
supply chain, too. Yes. Up until 2010, the Paducah
gaseous diffusion plant was the only domestic
site for low -grade uranium enrichment, a massive
and highly specialized federal operation that
anchored the economy in the Far West for decades.
If we overlay all of this, the manufacturing,
the bourbon, the federal presence, we start to
see the state's true economic geography, which
leads us directly to the Golden Triangle. This
is key to understanding modern Kentucky. The
Golden Triangle is the area formed by the metro
areas of Louisville, Lexington, and the northern
Kentucky region right next to Cincinnati. It's
basically the area bounded by interstates I -71,
I -75, and I -64. And the concentration of wealth
and people in this one small area is just striking.
It's extreme regionalism. The area covers only
about 19 % of the state's land, but it contains
54 % of its total population and accounts for
the vast majority of its economic growth. Louisville's
metro area is 1 .3 million. Lexington's is nearly
750 ,000. Even the third largest city, Bowling
Green, is growing fast and is a key part of that
manufacturing corridor. And speaking of cities,
the capital, Frankfurt, is a really interesting
example of this urban concentration. It really
highlights how much the economic power lies elsewhere.
Frankfurt's population is relatively small, just
over 28 ,000. That makes it one of only three
U .S. state capitals with a smaller population.
The others are Augusta, Maine, Pierre, South
Dakota, and Montpelier, Vermont. The political
action is in Frankfurt, but the commercial power
is definitely in Louisville and Lexington. And
looking at demographics, we can see those deep
historical roots we discussed earlier. While
today the largest reported ancestry is simply
American, if you go back to 1980, the three largest
claimed ancestries were English, Irish, and German.
And the distribution is very telling. German
ancestry is concentrated in the urban Ohio River
counties like Louisville, reflecting 19th century
migration. But English and Scotch -Irish ancestry
dominates the rural Appalachian eastern Kentucky
counties. Now shifting to infrastructure. Transportation
has to be exceptionally strong to support all
that auto manufacturing and cargo distribution.
It is truly a global logistics hub. Kentucky
has six major interstates. And a big move was
made in 2006 when Governor Ernie Fletcher ended
the tolls on the state parkways, which was a
huge boost for regional fight transportation.
But air and water are perhaps even more crucial
for the global supply chains than the roads are.
Air cargo is massive. Louisville International
Airport is home to UPS Worldport, their international
air sorting hub. It's essentially the nervous
system of global package delivery. But it's not
even the largest airport in the state. No, that
would be the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International
Airport, or CDG. Even though it's named for Cincinnati,
it's located across the river in Kentucky. It's
a super hub for DHL aviation and is ranked as
the seventh busiest airport in the entire U .S.
by passenger and cargo operations. You can't
talk manufacturing without supply chain, and
Kentucky's just built to handle it, often leveraging
those natural river boundaries. On the water,
Kentucky ranks 10th overall in port tonnage.
Major U .S. ports like Huntington Tri -State
and Cincinnati Northern Kentucky are right there,
so the waterways remain absolutely vital for
shipping heavy materials. And before we move
on... we have to mention the tax structure, especially
the details that appeal to modern high -tech
businesses. Right. The state has a flat 4 % individual
income tax rate and a 6 % sales tax. But maybe
the most impactful change for modern economic
development was when they repealed the intangible
personal property tax in 2006. Okay, so for our
listener, why was repealing the intangible property
tax such a huge deal for attracting new business?
Because intangible property includes things like
patents, copyrights, computer software, and brand
names. Taxing those assets made Kentucky extremely
unattractive for any company dealing in high
-tech intellectual property. By repealing it,
the state basically signaled it wanted to compete
in the knowledge economy, not just the physical
goods economy. And finally, the state is finding
new revenue streams in the modern era. Yes. They
just launched regulated sports betting in 2023.
They're taxing online bets at a higher rate than
in -person bets. And the industry already collected
millions in its first two months. It shows its
potential as a rapidly adopted high revenue stream
for the state. So now we delve into the culture.
which is where all the complexities of its history,
the South, Appalachia, the border state status,
it all comes together. Kentucky's culture is
firmly Southern, but with a very heavy Appalachian
influence, especially in the eastern parts of
the state. And that divided history also manifests
in its struggle with race and civil rights, showcasing
a really remarkable internal contradiction. Absolutely.
It experienced the Jim Crow era. Louisville tried
to implement residential racial segregation in
1914, but that ordinance was quickly struck down
by the Supreme Court. However, the state's day
law, which prohibited integration in schools,
stood for much longer. And the Supreme Court
actually upheld that law, didn't it? They did.
In 1908, they upheld it in a case against Berea
College, which was one of the first integrated
colleges in the South. That painful reality of
segregation persisted until 1950 when the state
finally began the slow process of integration.
But Kentucky made a huge stride in the mid -60s
that is often critically overlooked when people
discuss the civil rights movement. It did. In
1966, amidst the national civil rights struggle,
Kentucky adopted the first state civil rights
act in the South. It was a critical and progressive
moment that showed a measurable shift well ahead
of many of its southern neighbors. Let's discuss
its unique architectural heritage before we move
to food. Old Louisville is a national treasure.
It is the largest Victorian historic neighborhood
and the third largest historic preservation district
overall in the United States. It's a key cultural
hub, home to the St. James Court Art Show, which
is one of the country's largest and most famous
outdoor art shows. Moving to cuisine, Kentucky
has given the world a lot more than just what
the colonel was serving. Ha, yes. While Harlan
Sanders, who became an honorary Kentucky colonel,
did originate Kentucky fried chicken in North
Corbin, the state has some true culinary innovations.
The hot brown is an original Kentucky dish invented
at the Brown Hotel in Louisville. Why did they
invent it? Was there a specific reason? It was
invented around 1926 by Chef Fred Schmidt as
a late night snack for people who had been dancing
all night. It was a rich alternative to bacon
and eggs. Toasted bread with turkey, bacon, tomatoes,
and smothered in a cheesy Mornay sauce. It's
a signature dish. And the old -fashioned cocktail,
the signature of the bourbon world, was born
there, too. Yes, the creation of the quintessential
old -fashioned is credited to the Pendennis Club
in Louisville. It cements the state's role not
just in producing the whiskey, but in shaping
the culture around it. And we can't forget beer
cheese. Beer cheese. I remember trying to make
that once. The texture is much harder to get
right than you'd think. It's a local delicacy,
developed in Clark County in the 1940s, and it's
now celebrated every year at the Winchester Beer
Cheese Festival. Beyond food, Kentucky is the
undisputed cradle of bluegrass music. drawing
deeply from that Appalachian culture in his eastern
regions. It is the true home of the genre. You
have giants like Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass,
and more modern musicians like Ricky Skaggs.
Owensboro is now home to the Bluegrass Music
Hall of Fame and Museum, solidifying its place
as the genre's institutional home. And it hosts
one of the oldest continually broadcast radio
programs in America, showing the enduring power
of its cultural traditions. That would be the
Renfro Valley Gap. which started back in 1939.
It's broadcast from Renfro Valley, which is designated
Kentucky's country music capital. It's the second
oldest continually broadcast radio program of
any kind in America. Finally, we need to touch
on the literary giants who have chronicled the
state's struggles and triumphs, particularly
the ones who influence national policy. Kentucky
has produced exceptionally powerful American
literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin was set partly in Kentucky and is often
cited as an impetus for the Civil War. But you
also have native born talents like Robert Penn
Warren, who wrote All the King's Men, one of
the great American novels. But the most impactful
book in terms of driving federal policy has to
be here. Caudill's work on Appalachia. Absolutely
critical. Caudill's 1962 book, Night Comes to
the Cumberlands, was such a powerful, unflinching
expose of poverty and environmental destruction
in eastern Kentucky that it's credited with directly
contributing to the U .S. government's war on
poverty in the 1960s. That's a direct line from
literature to legislative action. And we can't
finish the cultural section without mentioning
one of the state's most famous titles, the Kentucky
Colonel. The Kentucky Colonel is the highest
title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth,
granted by the governor for outstanding service
to the community, state, or nation. The recipients
are commissioned for life and act as goodwill
ambassadors. It's a ceremonial honor, but one
that carries significant cultural weight. So
what does this all mean for how Kentucky is governed
today? Let's look at its political landscape,
which, much like its history, is a bundle of
contradictions. Kentucky is one of only five
states that elects its state officials, like
the governor, in odd -numbered years. And that
odd year election cycle is often seen as an attempt
to isolate state races from the national political
fervor of a presidential year. to keep the focus
on local issues. However, the political reality
at the legislative level has shifted dramatically
in the last decade. You mean with the General
Assembly? Yes. In 2016, Republicans won control
of the House for the first time since 1922. Almost
a century later. That's a historic shift. It
is. They now hold super majorities in both the
Senate and the House. And this reflects a massive
political transformation that began subtly but
ended very dramatically. Kentucky used to be
called a bellwether state, but that status is
now ancient history. It reliably voted for the
eventual presidential winner from 1964 all the
way through 2004. That streak ended in 2008 when
Kentucky voted overwhelmingly for John McCain,
who lost nationally. Since 2000, it has become
a reliable Republican stronghold in presidential
races. But the most fascinating micro detail
of this whole political transformation involves
a single county, Elliott County. This story just
perfectly encapsulates the national shift within
Kentucky's borders. Elliott County is legendary
in American political history. It was founded
in 1869 right after the Civil War and its political
alignment was set. It voted Democratic in every
single presidential election from its founding
all the way until 2016. Nearly 150 years of loyalty.
Why such dedication to the Democratic Party?
After the Civil War, loyalty often hinged on
which party residents saw as having saved the
union or which party helped reconstruct the state.
In this agrarian isolated county, that loyalty
was cemented early and just endured through generations
of machine politics and local tradition. So what
happened in 2016? In 2016, Donald Trump became
the first Republican ever to carry Elliott County,
and the magnitude of the swing is what matters.
In 2012, Mitt Romney got only 35 % of the vote
there. In 2016, Trump won by a 44 -point landslide.
It's a single data point that perfectly illustrates
the sweeping political realignment happening
among rural, ancestrally Democratic, socially
conservative voters. And that profound transformation
is now reflected in voter registration data,
too. Yes. The Democratic Party held the registration...
in Kentucky until July of 2022. That's when Republicans
officially took the lead for the first time in
state history. A few final unique legal and political
distinctions. The state remains strongly conservative
on social issues. It's considered one of the
most anti -abortion states in the country. A
2014 poll showed 57 % of Kentuckians believed
abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
On the death penalty, the state uses lethal injection,
but those convicted before March of 1998 still
have the option of choosing the electric chair.
And finally, regarding the process of democracy,
the source material notes that in a 2020 study,
Kentucky was ranked as the eighth hardest state
for citizens to vote in, which raises questions
about accessibility and mechanics of their state
-level elections. Hashtag tag outro. We've covered
a lot of ground today, moving from the tragic,
deep history of Native American displacement
to the sharp edges of modern economic reality.
The synthesis of Kentucky is truly a portrait
and paradox, constantly pulling in two directions
at once. It is. We saw the duality in its very
name, a commonwealth emphasizing public welfare,
yet a deep history of violent internal conflict
from the dueling governments of the Civil War
to the explosive anti -monopoly Black Patch Wars.
We found a state that cherishes its rural, southern,
and Appalachian roots, the bourbon capital of
the world, the home of bluegrass music, while
at the same time functioning as a cutting -edge
global manufacturing and logistics hub. I mean,
fourth in auto assembly, host to the largest
UPS and DHL air sorting facilities. And it's
a state whose painful history of racial segregation,
with the Supreme Court upholding the day law,
was countered by the progressive move of passing
the South's very first state civil rights act.
1966. Its politics shifted from a national bellwether
to a definitive Republican stronghold, summarized
by that dramatic historic flip in Elliott County
after nearly 150 years. Our mission today was
to provide you, the listener, with a more nuanced
view, to move past those easy stereotypes of
horses and bourbon, to truly understand this
complex border state that is so crucial to American
history and industry. And we hope we delivered
that comprehensive understanding. Now for our
final provocative thought for you to mull over.
Considering Kentucky's deeply rooted historical
resistance to external control, from Native Americans
fighting European encroachment to the Knight
Riders taking up arms against corporate monopolies,
how does this history of fierce, often violent
independence manifest today in a state that now
relies so heavily on massive, global, integrated
institutions like global auto supply chains,
the UPS World Port Hub, and major federal entities
like like Fort Knox. Think about that tension
between independence and economic integration.
Thank you for joining us for The Deep Dive. We'll
see you next time.