Kentucky: "Meadow Land"
Simpson County, Simpson County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Kentucky An Iroquois word meaning Meadow Land. It was visited by Indian tribes from as far west as the Rocky Mountains before 1750. The first white settlement was at Harrodsburg in 1774. Kentucky was the second district west of the Alleghenies to be settled and the first (1792) to become a state.
Erected by Tennessee Historical Commission
The Story
This marker reflects on the origins of Kentucky itself, tracing the name to an Iroquois word and recalling that Native peoples ranged across the region long before white settlement. The first permanent settlement came at Harrodsburg in 1774, and Kentucky became the second area west of the Alleghenies to be settled — and in 1792 the first to enter the Union as a state.
Why it matters
Kentucky's swift path from Indigenous hunting ground to the first trans-Appalachian state marks the opening of the American West and the collision of Native and settler worlds that defined it.
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