50 Things You May or May Not Know About Kentucky Pt. II

Kentucky is known as The Bluegrass State because of its bluish-green tinged grass. There are tons of weird, wonderful, cool and quirky facts about the Bluegrass State you may have never known.

The authors of Weird Kentucky, Mark Scuerman, Mark Moran and Jeffrey Scott Holland would have a great time with these weird and quirky facts

25. The nationally known holiday Mother's Day originated in Henderson, when schoolteacher Mary Towles Sasseen created it to honor her mother

26. The Hatfields and McCoys were two actual families who fought for a quarter century after the Civil War ended. While Devil Anse and his family came from West Virginia, the McCoys came from Pikeville

27. Washington County, KY is named after president George Washington. It was named this in 1780 when Washington was still president

28. 1817 seen the first performance of the Beethoven Symphony #1 in Lexington's Postlethwait's Tavern

29. Carrie Nation, a strong supporter of the temperance movement, was born in Garrard County

30. Zerelda James, the mother of famed outlaws Frank and Jesse, was born in a saloon, the Offutt-Cole Tavern. It still stands today at the intersection of Old Frankfort Pike and US 62 near the city of Midway

Zerelda James

The Offutt-Cole Tavern

31. The so-called "Father of Hollywood", D.W. Griffith, whose film Birth of a Nation, which shows strong support for the KKK, comes from the city of LaGrange, which is now known for having a medium security correctional facility

32. During the War of 1812, more than half of the troops that fought came from Kentucky

33. One of the earliest casualties of WWI was a Kentucky resident named Corporal James Bethel Gresham, who hails from McLean County

34. Mark Spitz, the famed Olympic swimmer, sported a stars and stripes-designed Speedo at the 1972 Olympics. They were considered the height of Paris couture-Paris, KY

35. The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington has the world's largest hand-blown stained glass window. Measuring at 67' x 24', it shows the Council of Ephesus

36. Fort Knox holds the largest store of gold. It's worth about $6 billion and some change

37. Middlesboro is the only city in the US to be built inside a meteor crater

38. Middlesboro is home to the Coal House, a house made entirely out of bituminous coal. It currently houses the Bell County Chamber of Commerce

39. High Bridge is the nation's tallest railroad bridge spanning navigable waters. It stands 275 feet about the Kentucky River in Jessamine County

40. The brand of lettuce known as Bibb lettuce was created and named after John Bibb from Frankfort

41. The world's first enamel bathtub was created in Louisville in 1856

42. Garrett Morgan, a former slave from Paris, KY, invented what we know now as traffic lights

43. The invention we know of as a radio was actually invented by Nathan Stubblefield, a resident of Murray, KY, in 1892 before Marconi came in and claimed the patent

44. At the 1893 Southern Exposition in Louisville, Thomas Edison debuted his invention to the public, the electric light bulb

45. The city of Louisville was founded by George Rogers Clark, older brother of the "Clark" of explorer fame Lewis and Clark

46. America's oldest Victorian preservation district is Old Louisville

47. At Lexington-based Transylvania University, students can enter a lottery for the chance to spend the night on campus in the tomb of a 19th century professor of botany

48. Out of all of the lower 48 states, Kentucky has the most miles of running water

49. While Kentucky is not the largest state, it is bordered by several larger states: West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri

50. In rural Breathitt County, is the Lost Mountain Coal Mine. This mine has been abandoned for 40+ years, but it's easy to find. Look for the pillars of smoke. It's also dangerous to one's health because the underground fires have destabilized the ground, making the ground easy to collapse and deadly fumes in the air could kill in no time

-Simply put, it's Kentucky's cousin to the Centralia, Pennsylvania underground coal fires. If you're familiar with the story of the town of Centralia being under threat from underground coal fires, this is the Kentucky cousin to that. The only difference is that this area of Kentucky was not completely evacuated like Centralia, Pennsylvania was. That town was completely evacuated for the safety of the residents