LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Just how much do you know about Kentucky and all that it offers? Specifically, how did the state’s 120 counties come to be?
The state has 120 counties. That’s the fourth highest in the country behind Texas, Georgia and Virginia.
“Kentucky used to be part of the Virginia colony, one big county called Fincastle County. But once people wised up to the fertile lands out west, they started settling and moving and moving out west,” said Jason Berkowitz, who works at the Frazier History Museum in Louisville.
“Now, as people are settling out in Kentucky, the terrain means that a lot of the people are settling or settling into isolated communities where they’re setting up. That’s kind of where they’re staying, separate from other communities. Right? So this kind of feeds into why we have so many counties because of the isolation and lack of transportation and communication at the beginning,” Berkowitz said.
He describes it sort of like the gold rush but for counties.
“I told a story about how in the 1750s, one gentleman wanted to establish a county out of his estate. The Kentucky legislature did not approve of this. They’re like, not only do they not want people settling, they didn’t want him forming these counties. The idea being that, if you didn’t have the population for a county and, more importantly, if you didn’t have the resources for a county, why do you get a county?” Berkowitz said.
But for Kentuckians during those days, it didn’t matter, compared to other states with fewer counties.
“Kentucky was like, ‘Live and let live.’ So that’s why we have so many counties with so many smaller populations, isolated communities with an opportunity to form their own counties, regardless of population size and regardless of resources available,” Berkowitz said.
So pretty soon Kentucky counties multiplied.
“Yeah. Started from one Kentucky county to three to nine to 120. Yeah. And we almost had 122,” Berkowitz said.
There were two mystery counties, one of which incorporated for almost eight months that the state legislature eventually dissolved, leaving us with 120 beautiful Kentucky counties.
Simon Meiners is the communications and research specialist at Frazier History Museum. He helped curate the 120 Cool Kentucky Counties exhibition by putting together an interactive display of music from each county in the state. He researched the history of each county along with the music that was generated from that place.
He explains, for example, the Benny Hill theme song played by Yakety Sax was composed and performed by a man from Trigg County.
“I want people to come to this exhibit and walk away learning things like, ‘Oh my goodness, this has such a cultural impact. I didn’t realize this person was from Kentucky,’” Meiners said.
He said Kentucky has a lot to offer.
“(We have the) Kentucky bourbon industry, obviously, we have college basketball,” Meiners said. “We have great music, live music and recorded music, tourist attractions, outdoor activities, climbing in the Red River Gorge, spelunking in Mammoth Cave. You can go to so many historic sites. You can go, you know, have a weekend on the lake in the summertime at Cave Run Lake, you can go, down to former towns, like Bug Tussle in Monroe County, where they have, I believe, rolley whole marble shooting tournaments. There are all these folk traditions around Kentucky that you can go participate in if you just reach out to different historic societies and tourism bureaus. There is so much to do in the state of Kentucky.”
That’s a lot of culture packed into all of Kentucky’s 120 counties.