A Guide to Treasure in Kentucky

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Crossroads of a nation, inhabited by the ancient Mound Builders. Visited by Welsh sailors centuries before Columbus. Land of the Iroquois, Shawnee, Cherokee and other tribes of nomadic Indians but none ever stayed permanently. The area was used only for hunting and war. Kentucky is believed to have been named by the Iroquois "Ken-tak-ee", meaning meadow land, or the levels. The buffalo and other animal trails were first used by the Indian hunters, later by the white pioneer and settler. Kentucky is one of the few tracts of land the Indians ever sold to the white man, the rest was taken by force of numbers. So much blood has been shed on its soil that it has been called the Dark and Bloody Ground. Kentucky has heard the dreaded Indian war whoops the terrible Rebel yell, and the screams of charging armies, also the twang of the primitive bow, crack of the flintlock rifle, and the roar of cannon have sounded within her borders. The French had a few trading posts in Kentucky prior to 1763, but most of their claims were north of the Ohio River and south of Kentucky in the Mississippi Valley. The earliest exploration of any importance by white men in Kentucky was in 1750, when Dr. Thomas Walker came through Cumberland Gap with several men exploring for the state of Virginia.