Blank Kentucky map

What the outline shows

The map shows Kentucky's border and nothing inside it. The entire northern edge, from the Big Sandy River in the east to the Mississippi in the west, is the Ohio River, facing West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois in turn. The east edge is the Big Sandy and Tug Fork rivers, then the crest of the Cumberland Mountains against Virginia. The south edge with Tennessee is a straight line that was surveyed with several errors and jogs. The west edge is the Mississippi River, including the Kentucky Bend, a small piece of the state cut off by a river loop and reachable by land only through Tennessee. Capital marks Frankfort in the north-central part of the state, not Louisville or Lexington. Western Kentucky is on Central time and the rest on Eastern.

Portrait or landscape

Kentucky is about 380 miles east to west and 140 miles north to south at its widest. That is more than 2.5:1, so landscape is the only sensible orientation; in portrait the state would be a thin strip across the centre. Landscape keeps the Ohio River loops, the Jackson Purchase in the west and the mountainous eastern tip all at a readable size. For the Bluegrass region alone, zoom to the area around Lexington and either orientation will do.

Five classroom exercises

1. Trace the Ohio River along the full northern border and mark, from east to west, the four states on the other bank.
2. Draw the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers entering from Tennessee and flowing north through the western part of the state to the Ohio at Paducah and Smithland.
3. Shade the Bluegrass region around Lexington and Frankfort, and draw the Kentucky River winding through it to the Ohio.
4. Mark the Kentucky Bend at the far western tip and explain why it is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi.
5. Place Louisville, Lexington, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Frankfort, then draw the Eastern/Central time zone line, which passes west of Louisville and east of Bowling Green.

How to recognise the Kentucky outline

• A wide, low shape with a long wavy top edge (the Ohio) and a nearly straight bottom edge.
• A pointed eastern tip that pushes into the Appalachians between West Virginia and Virginia.
• A wide western end that narrows to a small tail on the Mississippi.
• A tiny detached piece, the Kentucky Bend, inside a Mississippi loop at the far west.

Answer key and related maps

• Kentucky map — the labeled version with capital, cities and borders; use it as the answer key.
• Printable Kentucky map — the same outline with cities, county lines and the capital printed on.
• Kentucky county map — all 120 counties with their seats.
• Frankfort — a capital chosen over Louisville and Lexington.
• Neighbours: Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana.
• Ohio River, Appalachian Mountains, and the Eastern and Central time zones.
• All blank state maps and the printable US maps index.