Estill County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,163. Its county seat is Irvine The county was formed in 1808 and named for Captain James Estill, a Kentucky militia officer who was killed in the Battle of Little Mountain during the American Revolutionary War. Estill County is a moist county meaning that the county seat, the city of Irvine, allows the sale of alcohol after the October 9, 2013 vote, but not the rest of Estill County outside the Irvine city limits. Estill County has two adjacent towns, known as the twin cities, Irvine and Ravenna. Both cities sit along the Kentucky River in the central part of the county. Ravenna is home to a former CSX Transportation facility, now owned by Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation for the restoration of Chesapeake and Ohio 2716. It conducts the Ravenna Railroad Festival annually in late summer, and the historic Fitchburg & Cottage Furnaces are located here. Irvine hosts the annual Mountain Mushroom Festival over the last weekend of April, which celebrates the abundant Morel Mushrooms found in the region.
The Pennyroyal Plateau or Pennyroyal Region, often spelled Pennyrile, is a large physiographic region of Kentucky that features rolling hills, caves, and karst topography in general. It is named for Hedeoma pulegioides, a wild mint that grows in the area. It is also called the "Mississippian Plateau," for the Mississippian geologic age in which it was formed.
Muldraugh Hill is an escarpment in Bullitt, Hardin, Jefferson, and Nelson counties of central Kentucky separating the Bluegrass on the north and north-east from the Pennyrile on the south and south-west. This escarpment fades into the Pottsville Escarpment on the east and terminates at the Ohio River in the west. However, in truth, it continues in Indiana as Floyds Knobs.
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the dissected plateau lands lying west of the main Appalachian Mountains. The terms stem from historical usage rather than geological difference, so there is no strict dividing line between the two. Two major rivers share the names of the plateaus, with the Allegheny River rising in the Allegheny Plateau and the Cumberland River rising in the Cumberland Plateau in Harlan County, Kentucky.
The West Kentucky Coal Field comprises an area in the west-central and northwestern part of the state, bounded by the Dripping Springs Escarpment and the Pennyroyal Plateau and the Ohio River, but is part of the Illinois Basin that extends into Indiana and Illinois. It is characterized by Pennsylvanian age sandstones, shales and coal. Nearly all of the counties in the area are part of the television market known as the Kentucky–Illinois–Indiana tri-state area.
The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, 260 miles (418 km) long, in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. The river and its tributaries drain much of the central region of the state, with its upper course passing through the coal-mining regions of the Cumberland Mountains, and its lower course passing through the Bluegrass region in the north central part of the state. Its watershed encompasses about 7,000 square miles (18,000 km2). It supplies drinking water to about one-sixth of the population of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The Highland Rim is a geographic term for the area in Tennessee, North Alabama, and Kentucky which surrounds the Central Basin. Geologically, the Central Basin is a dome. The Highland Rim is a cuesta surrounding the basin, and the border where the difference in elevation is sharply pronounced is an escarpment.
The Tradewater River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 136 miles (219 km) long, in western Kentucky in the United States. It drains an area of 932 square miles (2,410 km2) in the limestone hills south of Evansville, Indiana, between the basins of the Cumberland River on the west and the Green River on the east.
Floyds Knobs is a small unincorporated community in Lafayette Township, Floyd County, Indiana, United States. Historically a farming community on the outskirts of New Albany, it has since become a bedroom community for Louisville, Kentucky. It contains subdivisions, farms, small shopping centers, churches, and transmitters for many of the area's television and radio stations. It is also the location of Floyd Central High School. There is a population of about 11,412 to 12,439.
The Salt River is a 150-mile-long (240 km) river in the U.S. state of Kentucky that drains 2,920 square miles (7,600 km2). It begins near Parksville, Kentucky, rising from the north slope of Persimmon Knob south of KY 300 between Alum Springs and Wilsonville, and ends at the Ohio River near West Point. Taylorsville Lake is formed from the Salt River, and Guist Creek Lake is also in its drainage basin.
Louisville is a city in Jefferson County, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is located at the Falls of the Ohio River.
The Rough River is a 136-mile-long (219 km) tributary of the Green River in west-central Kentucky in the United States. It's located about 70 miles southwest of Louisville, and flows through Breckinridge, Hardin, Grayson, and Ohio counties. Via the Green and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. According to the Geographic Names Information System, it has also been known historically as "Rough Creek". In the 1950s it was dammed, creating Rough River Lake.
The Licking River is a partly navigable, 303-mile-long (488 km) tributary of the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky. The river and its tributaries drain much of the region of northeastern Kentucky between the watersheds of the Kentucky River to the west and the Big Sandy River to the east. The North Fork Licking River, in Pendleton County, Kentucky, is one of its tributaries. The South Fork Licking River, in counties including Harrison County, Kentucky, is another.
The Chaplin River is an 85.6-mile-long (137.8 km) tributary of the Beech Fork of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
Pilot Knob State Nature Preserve is located in Powell County, Kentucky, USA. It is a 1,257.93 acre nature preserve in Eastern Kentucky.
Kentucky is situated in the both Midwest and Upland South. A significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia.
The Rolling Fork is a 108-mile-long (174 km) river in central Kentucky. The river flows through Marion and Hardin counties, as well as being the border between LaRue and Nelson counties. The Rolling Fork drains much of the land in these counties, and is a key part of life in this area of the Knob Region. The Rolling Fork is a part of the Salt River Basin, and the larger Ohio River Basin.
The geology of Kentucky formed beginning more than one billion years ago, in the Proterozoic eon of the Precambrian. The oldest igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock is part of the Grenville Province, a small continent that collided with the early North American continent. The beginning of the Paleozoic is poorly attested and the oldest rocks in Kentucky, outcropping at the surface, are from the Ordovician. Throughout the Paleozoic, shallow seas covered the area, depositing marine sedimentary rocks such as limestone, dolomite and shale, as well as large numbers of fossils. By the Mississippian and the Pennsylvanian, massive coal swamps formed and generated the two large coal fields and the oil and gas which have played an important role in the state's economy. With interludes of terrestrial conditions, shallow marine conditions persisted throughout the Mesozoic and well into the Cenozoic. Unlike neighboring states, Kentucky was not significantly impacted by the Pleistocene glaciations. The state has extensive natural resources, including coal, oil and gas, sand, clay, fluorspar, limestone, dolomite and gravel. Kentucky is unique as the first state to be fully geologically mapped.
