Bluegrass Region
Coordinates: 38°00′N 84°30′W / 38.0°N 84.5°W
The Bluegrass region (Shawnee: Eskippakithiki) is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It makes up the northern part of the state where a majority of the state's population has lived and developed its largest cities.
Before European-American settlement, various cultures of indigenous peoples adapted to the region, which had mostly a savannah of wide grasslands with interspersed enormous oak trees. They hunted its large herds of bison and other game, especially near salt licks. The name "Kentucky" means "meadow lands" in several different Indian languages and was specifically applied to this region. Europeans adopted the name to apply to the state. Europeans named the Bluegrass region for the blue flowered Poa grass that grew there.
Americans settled in number in the region in the decades after the Revolutionary War, migrating mostly from Virginia. By 1800 these planters noticed that horses grazed in the Bluegrass region were more hardy than those from other regions; this is due to the high content of calcium in the soil. Within decades of increased settlement, the remaining herds of bison had moved west. Breeding of Thoroughbred horses was developed here, as well as of other quality livestock. Kentucky livestock was driven to Tennessee and other areas of the Ohio valley for sale.
Planters, supported by slave labor, also cultivated major commodity crops, such as tobacco, hemp (see Hemp in Kentucky), and grapes (see Kentucky wine). The first commercial winery in the United States was opened in the Bluegrass region in 1801 in present-day Jessamine County by a group of Swiss immigrants. It was authorized by the state legislature.
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