The fertile
Bluegrass Downs
, just eighty miles across, form the base of America's thoroughbred racing industry, with
Lexington
quietly prospering at its heart. The name comes from the unique steel-blue sheen of the buds in the meadows, only visible in early morning during April and May. Kentucky's first white pioneers, who trekked in the 1770s through the 150 miles of wilderness now called the
Daniel Boone National Forest
, were amazed to find this "Eden" deserted while the Indians lived in much less attractive terrain. Anthropologists have now discovered that the area's twelfth-century inhabitants were plagued by fatal bone diseases, due to mineral deficiencies in the soil.
Around modern Lexington are some of the oldest towns west of the Alleghenies. However, amid the fine scenery of the
Natural Bridge
and
Cumberland Gap
districts, eastern Kentucky suffers from acute rural poverty.
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