Everything Trivia
Browse Trivia
Geography

52 Kentucky Trivia Questions and Fun Facts

Reviewed by Stefanie Zaldarriaga, Author·Updated Oct 2026·7 min read

52 Kentucky trivia questions with answers and a handful of checked fun facts, from the first Kentucky Derby and Mammoth Cave to Lincoln's birthplace and the state's brand-new official dog.

Featured Image of Kentucky Trivia Questions. Credit: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Kentucky produced the presidents of both sides of the Civil War, runs the oldest continuously held stakes race in America, and sits on top of the longest known cave system on Earth. In 2026 it also got around to naming an official state dog. Before the questions below, here are the facts worth knowing.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on his father's Sinking Spring Farm on February 12, 1809. Jefferson Davis, later president of the Confederacy, had been born in Christian County, Kentucky, on June 3, 1808, eight months earlier.

The first Kentucky Derby was run at Churchill Downs on May 17, 1875. Oliver Lewis, a Black jockey, rode Aristides to victory, and the 1 1/4-mile race has run every year since.

The mapped passages of Mammoth Cave stretch over 400 miles, which makes it the world's longest known cave system.

Kentucky's state seal shows two friends embracing, ringed by the motto "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Since 2002 the state has had a Latin motto too: "Deo gratiam habeamus," or "Let us be grateful to God."

Chapter 2 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes keeps adding to the list of official symbols, and a few are newer than most lists online:

  • State dog: the Treeing Walker Coonhound, effective July 15, 2026.
  • State gemstone: Kentucky agate, since a 2024 amendment.
  • State sports car: the Corvette, built in Bowling Green.
  • State music: bluegrass. State dance: clogging.
  • State bluegrass song: "Blue Moon of Kentucky" by Bill Monroe, alongside the state song, "My Old Kentucky Home."

The questions start easy and get harder as you go, and every one has multiple-choice options. Read each question aloud, give the table a moment, then reveal the answer.

  1. 1What is the capital of Kentucky?

  2. 2What is Kentucky's traditional nickname?

  3. 3Which horse race is run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May?

  4. 4Churchill Downs is in which Kentucky city?

  5. 5Which president was born in a log cabin in Kentucky on February 12, 1809?

  6. 6What is Kentucky's official state bird?

  7. 7What is Kentucky's official state flower?

  8. 8Which Stephen Foster song is Kentucky's official state song?

  9. 9Which Kentucky national park protects the world's longest known cave system?

  10. 10Colonel Harland Sanders founded which fried-chicken chain in Kentucky?

  11. 11Which boxer was born Cassius Clay in Louisville in 1942?

  12. 12Which American whiskey is Kentucky most famous for?

  13. 13Which car, built in Bowling Green, is Kentucky's official state sports car?

  14. 14Which famous baseball bat brand is made in Louisville?

  15. 15Which breed is Kentucky's official state horse?

  16. 16What is Kentucky's official state drink?

  17. 17Which river forms Kentucky's northern border?

  18. 18Kentucky joined the Union on June 1, 1792, as which state?

  19. 19Kentucky was carved out of which original state?

  20. 20Like Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, Kentucky is officially a what?

  21. 21Which motto surrounds the two friends on Kentucky's state seal?

  22. 22What does Kentucky's state seal show?

  23. 23Which Confederate president was born in Kentucky in 1808, eight months before Lincoln?

  24. 24Which horse won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875?

  25. 25How long is the Kentucky Derby?

  26. 26What is the Kentucky Derby's nickname?

  27. 27What is Kentucky's official state tree?

  28. 28What is Kentucky's official state fossil?

  29. 29What is Kentucky's official state butterfly?

  30. 30What is Kentucky's official state fruit?

  31. 31What is Kentucky's official state dance?

  32. 32Which genre is Kentucky's official state music?

  33. 33Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" holds which official title?

  34. 34What is Kentucky's official state gun?

  35. 35The US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox stores what?

  36. 36The mapped passages of Mammoth Cave stretch over how many miles?

  37. 37Which mountain pass near the meeting point of Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee carried settlers west?

  38. 38Which frontiersman marked the Wilderness Road through the Cumberland Gap in 1775?

  39. 39Louisville sisters Mildred and Patty Hill wrote the tune of which song?

  40. 40The open-faced Hot Brown sandwich was created at which Louisville hotel?

  41. 41Which "Father of Bluegrass" was born in Rosine, Kentucky?

  42. 42Which "Coal Miner's Daughter" singer was born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky?

  43. 43Which Kentucky city calls itself the Horse Capital of the World?

  44. 44Which Ocean's Eleven star was born in Lexington, Kentucky?

  45. 45Which feuding families lined up on either side of the Tug Fork, one in Kentucky and one in West Virginia?

  46. 46Who rode Aristides to victory in the first Kentucky Derby?

  47. 47Kentucky's official Latin motto, "Deo gratiam habeamus," means what?

  48. 48Which breed became Kentucky's official state dog in July 2026?

  49. 49Since a 2024 change to state law, what is Kentucky's official gemstone?

  50. 50Which tree did the tulip poplar replace as Kentucky's state tree in 1994?

  51. 51How many counties does Kentucky have?

  52. 52The Kentucky Bend, cut off from the rest of the state, sits in a loop of which river?

Answer Key

  1. 1. Frankfort
  2. 2. The Bluegrass State
  3. 3. The Kentucky Derby
  4. 4. Louisville
  5. 5. Abraham Lincoln
  6. 6. Cardinal
  7. 7. Goldenrod
  8. 8. My Old Kentucky Home
  9. 9. Mammoth Cave
  10. 10. KFC
  11. 11. Muhammad Ali
  12. 12. Bourbon
  13. 13. Chevrolet Corvette
  14. 14. Louisville Slugger
  15. 15. Thoroughbred
  16. 16. Milk
  17. 17. Ohio River
  18. 18. The 15th
  19. 19. Virginia
  20. 20. Commonwealth
  21. 21. United We Stand, Divided We Fall
  22. 22. Two friends embracing
  23. 23. Jefferson Davis
  24. 24. Aristides
  25. 25. 1 1/4 miles
  26. 26. The Run for the Roses
  27. 27. Tulip poplar
  28. 28. Brachiopod
  29. 29. Viceroy
  30. 30. Blackberry
  31. 31. Clogging
  32. 32. Bluegrass
  33. 33. The state bluegrass song
  34. 34. Kentucky Long Rifle
  35. 35. Gold
  36. 36. Over 400
  37. 37. Cumberland Gap
  38. 38. Daniel Boone
  39. 39. Happy Birthday to You
  40. 40. The Brown Hotel
  41. 41. Bill Monroe
  42. 42. Loretta Lynn
  43. 43. Lexington
  44. 44. George Clooney
  45. 45. The Hatfields and the McCoys
  46. 46. Oliver Lewis
  47. 47. Let us be grateful to God
  48. 48. Treeing Walker Coonhound
  49. 49. Kentucky agate
  50. 50. Kentucky coffeetree
  51. 51. 120
  52. 52. Mississippi River

Keep Going