Potpourri Overview Bluegrass means a lot of things in the Bluegrass State. There s the grass itself, a lush variety of groundcover that powers the state s renowned racehorses. This is the land of Kentucky s royalty, be they horse or human. And then there s bluegrass music, a folk art from a much different side of the state the remote and beautiful Appalachian Mountains.
Travelers can experience all the varieties of bluegrass in one vacation plus a whole lot more.
Evidence of Kentucky s early inhabitants can be found in cave shelters and burial remains in the eastern part of the state. In the west, traces of the ancient Mississippian culture are visible at the Wickliffe Mounds archaeological complex, where remnants of a ceremonial site and a trading center can be visited. In both places, the people hunted and farmed and lived in stockaded villages along the rivers. The formidable Appalachian Mountains prevented Europeans from exploring Kentucky until 1750, when Dr. Thomas Walker discovered the Cumberland Gap. The resulting westward expansion was led in part by Daniel Boone, the legendary pioneer who developed the Wilderness Trail and led settlers through the Gap beginning in the 1770s.