The Bluegrass of Kentucky: An Engineered Image of a Gracious Life

Abstract

Places, whether ordinary or memorable, natural or human influenced, are evocative of images that capture the imagination. Such is the case for the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. As an internationally renowned amenity landscape, anchored by the thoroughbred industry, its evolution over time, like many signature landscapes, has been largely engineered. The historic beginnings, extolled by Filson through the tales of Daniel Boone, are meant to bring to mind the log cabin in the forest clearing that evolved into the tobacco and cattle farm that was, in turn, engineered into the thoroughbred horse farm of today. To maintain and/or strengthen this modern day image, advertising, that encourages tourism, shopping and the like, attempts to counteract the impact of the “other” images such as suburban sprawl, office parks, industry and the infamous mall, by giving them “horsey” type names – Thoroughbred Park, Man O’ War Boulevard, Gainesway subdivision. This essay explores the engineering of the Bluegrass Region as it responds to the social and economic forces that are attempting to replace the rural amenity landscape with urban land uses clad in symbols of what once was.