The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( /kɨnˈtʌki/ (help·info)) is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the other three being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 it became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th largest state in terms of total area, the 36th largest in land area, and ranks 26th in population. Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that native bluegrass is present in many of the pastures throughout the state, based on the fertile soil. It made possible the breeding of high-quality livestock, especially thoroughbred racing horses. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park; the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the Lower 48 states; and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. It is also home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States, the largest free-ranging elk herd east of Montana, and the nation's most productive coalfield. Kentucky is also known for thoroughbred horses, horse racing, bourbon distilleries, bluegrass music, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, and college basketball. The origin of Kentucky's name (variously spelled Cane-tuck-ee, Cantucky, Kain-tuck-ee, and Kentuckee before its modern spelling was accepted)[4] does not have a consensus. It is unlikely to mean "dark and bloody ground", as is commonly believed, because no variation of the word is associated with that meaning in any known Native American language. It is not a combination of "cane" and "turkey".[5] The most likely etymology is that it comes from an Iroquoian word for "meadow" or "prairie"[4][6] (c.f. Mohawk kenhtà:ke, Seneca këhta'keh).[7] Other possibilities also exist: the suggestion of early Kentucky pioneer George Rogers Clark that the name means "the river of blood", related to 13th century wars in which the Iroquois pushed other tribes out of the area;[4] a Wyandot name meaning "land of tomorrow"; a Shawnee term possibly referring to the head of a river;[8] or the Algonquian word, kenten (river bottom).[5] Kentucky is considered to be situated in the Upland South. It is infrequently also included in the Midwest.[9][10] A significant portion of Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast. West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more states. Kentucky's northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River; however, the official border is based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792. In several places, the border does not follow the current course of the appropriate river. Northbound travelers on US 41 from Henderson, upon crossing the Ohio River, will find themselves still in Kentucky until they travel about a half-mile (800 m) farther north. A horse-racing track, Ellis Park, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the only land border between Indiana and Kentucky.[11] Kentucky is the only U.S. state to have a non-contiguous part exist as an exclave surrounded by other states. Fulton County, in the far west corner of the state, includes a small part of land, Kentucky Bend, on the Mississippi River bordered by Missouri and accessible via Tennessee, created by the New Madrid Earthquake.[12] Kentucky can be divided into five primary regions: the Cumberland Plateau in the east, the north-central Bluegrass region, the south-central and western Pennyroyal Plateau, the Western Coal Fields and the far-west Jackson Purchase. The Bluegrass region is commonly divided into two regions, the Inner Bluegrass—the encircling 90 miles (145 km) around Lexington—and the Outer Bluegrass—the region that contains most of the Northern portion of the state, above the Knobs. Much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. Located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), or that all monthly average high temperatures are above freezing. Monthly average temperatures in Kentucky range from a summer daytime high of 87 °F (31 °C) to a winter low of 23 °F (−5 °C). The average precipitation is 46 inches (1,200 mm) a year.[13] Kentucky experiences all four seasons, usually with striking variations in the severity of summer and winter from year to year.[14] Major weather events that have affected Kentucky include: Kentucky's 90,000 miles (140,000 km) of streams provides one of the most expansive and complex stream systems in the nation. Kentucky has both the largest artificial lake east of the Mississippi in water volume (Lake Cumberland) and surface area (Kentucky Lake). It is the only U.S. state to be bordered on three sides by rivers—the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Big Sandy River and Tug Fork to the east.[15] Its major internal rivers include the Kentucky River, Tennessee River, Cumberland River, Green River and Licking River. Though it has only three major natural lakes,[16] the state is home to many artificial lakes. Kentucky also has more navigable miles of water than any other state in the union, other than Alaska.[17] Kentucky has an expansive park system which includes one national park, two National Recreation areas, two National Historic Parks, two national forests, 45 state parks, 37,696 acres (153 km2) of state forest, and 82 Wildlife Management Areas. Kentucky has been part of two of the most successful wildlife reintroduction projects in United States history. In the winter of 1997, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources began to re-stock elk in the state's eastern counties, which had been extinct from the area for over 150 years. As of 2009, the herd had reached the project goal of 10,000 animals, making it the largest herd east of the Mississippi River.[18] The state also stocked wild turkeys in the 1950s. Once extinct there, today Kentucky has more turkeys than any other eastern state. Hunters telechecked a record 29,006 birds during the 23-day season in Spring 2009.[19] Although inhabited by Native Americans from at least 1000 BCE to about 1650 CE, when European and colonial explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in greater number in the mid-1700s, there were no major Native American settlements in the region. The Shawnees from the north and Cherokees from the south sent parties into the area regularly for hunting. As more settlers entered the area, warfare broke out because the American Indians saw settlers' attempts to own land to be encroachment on their traditional hunting grounds.[24] According to a 1790 U.S. government report, 1,500 Kentucky settlers had been killed in Indian raids since the end of the Revolutionary War.[25] In an attempt to end these raids, Clark led an expedition of 1,200 drafted men against Shawnee towns on the Wabash River in 1786, one of the first actions of the Northwest Indian War.[26] After the American Revolution, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County.[27] Eventually, the residents of Kentucky County petitioned for a separation from Virginia. Ten constitutional conventions were held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in Danville between 1784 and 1792. In 1790, Kentucky's delegates accepted Virginia's terms of separation, and a state constitution was drafted at the final convention in April 1792. On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the fifteenth state to be admitted to the union. Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected the first Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.[28] Kentucky was a border state during the American Civil War.[29] Although frequently described as never having seceded, a group of Kentucky soldiers stationed at Russellville passed an Ordinance of Secession under the moniker "Convention of the People of Kentucky" on November 20, 1861.[30] They established a Confederate government of Kentucky with its capital in Bowling Green.[31] Though Kentucky was represented by the central star on the Confederate battle flag,[32] the Russellville Convention did not represent the majority of residents. A year earlier, philosopher Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels that the result of a vote's deciding how Kentucky would be represented at a convention of the border states was "100,000 for the Union ticket, only a few thousand for secession."[33] Kentucky officially remained "neutral" throughout the war due to Union sympathies of many of the Commonwealth's citizens. Confederate Memorial Day is observed by some in Kentucky on Confederate President Jefferson Davis' birthday, June 3.[34] The Black Patch Tobacco Wars, a vigilante action, occurred in the area in the early 1900s. As result of the tobacco industry monopoly, tobacco farmers in the area were forced to sell their tobacco at low prices. Many local farmers and activists united to refuse to sell tobacco to the tobacco industry. A vigilante wing, the "Night Riders", terrorized farmers who sold their tobacco at the low prices demanded by the tobacco corporations. They burned several tobacco warehouses, notably in Hopkinsville and Princeton. In the later period of their operation, they were known to physically assault farmers in the middle of the night who broke the boycott. The Governor declared martial law and deployed the Kentucky Militia to end the Black Patch Tobacco Wars. On January 30, 1900, Governor William Goebel, flanked by two bodyguards and walking to the State Capitol in downtown Frankfort, was mortally wounded by an assassin. Goebel was contesting the election of 1899, which William S. Taylor was initially believed to have won. For several months, J. C. W. Beckham, Goebel's running mate, and Taylor fought over who was the legal governor, until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in May in favor of Beckham. After fleeing to Indiana, Taylor was indicted as a co-conspirator in Goebel's assassination. Goebel is the only governor of a U.S. state to have been assassinated while in office.[35]