Kentucky Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for Kentucky trivia? Try our list Kentucky little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—The youngest U.S. vice president was John Cabell Breckinridge, who was 36 when he was inaugurated. Breckinridge, who was born in 1821 near Lexington, served from 1857 to 1861.
first appeared: 5/18/2008
—Basketball coach Phil Woolpert, born in 1915 in Danville (pop. 15,477), led the University of San Francisco to back-to-back national championships in 1955 and 1956. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—Based in Louisville, the Army Corps of Engineers’ giant floating crane, the Henry M. Shreve, has a 550-ton lifting capacity, a 185-foot boom, and is used for repairing and maintaining gates on the locks of the Ohio River.
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—Monroe County (pop. 11,756) was named for the fifth U.S. president, James Monroe, and its county seat, Tompkinsville (pop. 2,660), was named for Monroe’s vice president, Daniel Tompkins.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—Built in 1909 by Maggie Steed, the Hotel Metropolitan in Paducah (pop. 26,307) once was the heart of the city’s black business community. Famous patrons included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong. The hotel is being restored.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—In 1831, the town of Fredericksburg was renamed Warsaw (pop. 1,811) after a popular book of the day, Thaddeus of Warsaw, by Jane Porter.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—The 4,791-acre rugged Beaver Creek Wilderness near Greenwood includes remains from the ghost town of Bauer.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—Incorporated in 1851, Eminence (pop. 2,231) was so-named because it’s the high place—about 900 feet above sea level—along the railroad between Louisville and Lexington.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—On the federal list of endangered species, Short’s goldenrod grows within Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park in Robertson County (pop. 2,266). The yellow flowering plant is named for Charles Short, who discovered it in 1840 near Louisville.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—The state has an official honey festival, the Clarkson Honeyfest in Clarkson (pop. 794), designated in 2006.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
—A game of marbles called rolley hole often is under way at the Marble Super Dome of Monroe County (pop. 11,756) in Tompkinsville (pop. 2,660). Many of the adult sharpshooters make their own marbles.
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—Saxophonist Boots Randolph (1927-2007), best known for his 1963 instrumental hit, “Yakety Sax,” played sax on recordings for Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins and other legends. He was born Homer Louis Randolph in Paducah (pop. 26,307).
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—One of nation’s oldest distilling sites is Buffalo Trace Distillery in Franklin County (pop. 47,687), where whiskey has been produced since 1787. The site also is an ancient buffalo crossing.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—Central Park in Henderson (pop. 27,373) is believed to be the oldest municipal park west of the Allegheny Mountains. The Transylvania Company included the park in the town’s original plans in 1797.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—Born Louis Marshall Jones in 1913 in Niagara, the banjo player and comedian was dubbed “Grandpa Jones” at age 22 by singer Bradley Kincaid, who said Jones sounded grumpy during their early morning radio shows. Jones, who performed on Hee Haw and the Grand Ole Opry, died in 1998.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—Supporting themselves first by farming when they came to central Kentucky in 1848, Trappist monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani near Loretto (pop. 623) today are known for their bourbon fudge, fruitcakes and cheese.
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—A parade of 1,138 all-terrain vehicles rolled through Evarts (pop. 1,101) in Harlan County (pop. 33,202) on June 24, 2006, and set a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest ATV parade.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—Since the 1790s, Augusta (pop. 1,204) has had a ferry crossing; it is one of the oldest operating on the Ohio River.
first appeared: 7/29/2007
—Built in 1788, four years before statehood, the three-story stone Duncan Tavern in Paris (pop. 9,183) now is a historic center and the state headquarters of the Kentucky Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
—Opened last year, the 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Louisville is both a public art museum and a 91-room hotel. The museum’s art collection includes paintings, sculptures, video and interactive technology-based works.
first appeared: 7/1/2007
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