Kentucky River
Catchment area of the Kentucky River
The Kentucky River
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
Template: Infobox River / BILD_fehlt
Template: Infobox River / Obsolete
The Kentucky River is a 417 km long tributary of the Ohio River, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The river and its tributaries drain the majority of the middle of the state. The upper course passing through the coal mining areas influenced by the Cumberland Mountains, while the lower reaches through the Bluegrass region in the north of the state. The catchment area comprises approximately 18,000 km ² and provides drinking water for about one- sixth of the population of Kentucky.
Thanks to 14 dams that were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the river is navigable over its entire length. The administration has the state's Kentucky River Authority. The main significance of the barrages is now in the drinking water supply Lexington. Despite an annual precipitation of 1000 mm, the area because of the karstic limestone in the subsurface has little surface water.
Description
The Kentucky River is formed in the middle of Kentucky near Beattyville, Lee County, by the union of the North Fork Kentucky River and South Fork Kentucky River at a height of about 204 m. Another source river, the Middle Fork Kentucky River flows just 6 km upstream from the North Fork Kentucky River. On the Middle Fork Kentucky River is located 5 km ² Reservoir Buckhorn Lake.
The Kentucky River flows from Beattyville strongly meandering northwest past through the Daniel Boone National Forest, at Irvine and Boonesborough.
He then turns to the southwest, south of Lexington past. Approximately 25 km southwest of Boonesborough opens out of the Red River, five kilometers of Silver Creek; at High Bridge, the Dix River. Between Clays Ferry, Madison County and Frankfort, the river, the Kentucky River Palisades, a 160 km long sequence ravines happens. At Frankfort the Benson Creek flows a, 20 km further to the Elkhorn Creek. The Kentucky River flows near Carrollton in the Ohio River.