Yeah birds need bees and ice needs whiskey to make a cocktail. Gone: Kentucky is a state of great geographical diversity and amazing natural features. However, some of the most unique natural features have vanished and there is no immediate cause or explanation. The Ice Age is thought to have come and gone hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, although this remains the only period in history that we know of when a large ice cap covered the United States. The ice cap covered Kentucky, except for the area around south-central Kentucky. Kentucky’s coastline was once about 400 miles in length and was an extension of the Mississippi River floodplain, which at its greatest extent extended all the way to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The first humans arrived in Kentucky about 12,000 years ago, followed by large mastodon herds and mammoths. Scientists don’t know why humans didn’t use the Kentucky River for canoeing, it’s an incredible river for boating and fishing. Perhaps it was too shallow in the past and too turbulent for large boats? Or maybe there just weren’t enough food and game animals in the area? Whatever the reason, if there had been a way for Native Americans to travel on the Kentucky River, we’d have found their ruins. Horsehead Falls may have once taken place in Kentucky, but today’s version is a large waterfall just outside of Lexington. Before white settlers arrived in Kentucky, tribes of Native Americans lived in this region and Kentucky’s first known inhabitants, Kentuckians, lived as hunter-gatherers, foraging for food and taking advantage of the local fauna. The earliest recorded Native American artifacts in Kentucky come from the Cumberland River region around present-day Nashville, and the first archeological sites discovered in Kentucky have dates dating back to 3,400 years ago. Before European colonization, Kentucky’s animal inhabitants included bears, cougars, wolves, panthers, coyotes, deer, elk, buffalo, bobcats and black bears. Early white explorers discovered herds of buffalo, elk and deer on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, and later on a series of natural limestone mounds called berms along the river in southern Kentucky proved to be important stopover points for wildlife on their migratory routes from the south and east. The Ohio River was once the largest of the Great Lakes, draining a basin larger than the state of Texas. Its tributaries, which were even more powerful than the Ohio, flowed into the Ohio in the lower parts of Kentucky. The Ohio River flooded often and permanently so large that many geologists believe the valley of the Ohio River basin may have once been connected to Canada’s Laurentian drainage area. In a few thousand years, these great rivers and lakes began to shrink and dry out. Today it would take a powerful torrent to create a flow of water that could carry a human on the Ohio River to New Orleans. Kentucky’s limestone and the geology of the area is quite interesting, it’s the second largest deposit of limestone in the world. The limestone deposits in Kentucky make up the Bluegrass region of the state and are a major source of calcium carbonate in the United States. But because of the way the limestone has been folded, many caves have formed, and Kentucky is home to hundreds of caves, some which have developed very beautiful limestone formations. Most of Kentucky’s cave openings have collapsed but some caves, such as the “Big Room” in Mammoth Cave National Park, are large enough to walk through. Today these caves are inhabited by bats, mice, spiders, bats, snails, and a variety of amphibians, including salamanders, snakes and turtles. They also may offer protection from predators that would hunt on land but find refuge under the earth during Kentucky’s cold winters. Kentucky’s coal has a dark history, with human exploitation first occurring here thousands of years ago and coal development lasting into the present century. Kentucky has a long history of extracting coal, perhaps longer than anywhere else in the world. By the 18th century, early pioneers had begun using coal as fuel for making kerosene. Today’s coal industry can’t survive without the use of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and because of the damage to the riverbeds caused by strip mining, the two rivers were declared to be the most endangered rivers in the country in 2002. The Great Famine of 1849-1850 may have been the first instance of significant global warming, and due to poor management, Kentucky agriculture was hard hit. The Great Famine led to one of the worst recessions in American history. In the 19th century, Kentucky became a major producer of tobacco. However, the advent of modern pesticides and artificial fertilizers have severely reduced the demand for tobacco, and Kentucky tobacco farmers began to suffer, making them the largest group of welfare recipients in the state. A Kentucky native, Charles Overton, was responsible for the largest loss of human life due to a weather event when he started blasting water from the Little River to create hydroelectric power. Some estimates put the loss of life at approximately 40 lives, with people swept away and unable to climb to safety along the rocky riverbanks. This disaster was one of several that resulted from dam-building in the mid-1870s. Lately the state has faced problems with the decline of its fisheries, as pollution, development and invasive species have led to the elimination of entire ecosystems. The Kentucky River is among the bodies of water that were once so great they were labeled “rivers of the world.” Unfortunately, the Kentucky River, one of the five rivers that once constituted what was known as the Ohio River system, was so polluted by 1970 that it was no longer able to support many species of fish. Now, thanks to the efforts of dedicated scientists, the Kentucky River is one of the few that are almost completely clean and are replete with an abundance of wildlife. Unfortunately, recent research has revealed that the water is no longer able to support endangered species such as the American alligator, which is slowly disappearing from North America. The Kentucky River and its tributaries provide important habitats for hundreds of birds and animals, such as the endangered wood stork and river otter. Some species of fish are among the world’s longest-living species. It has been estimated that the Kentucky River and its tributaries supports as many as 1,000 fish species, including approximately 75 species of freshwater mussels and over 350 freshwater mussel species. The state’s rivers are essential to the survival of two federally listed endangered mussels, and one endangered freshwater mussel species, the bluegrass pearlymussel, now only occurs here. The Kentucky River is also home to a number of species of darters, minnows, stoneflies and damselflies that are rare or endangered, with the Kentucky riverine water pennywort in particularly critical condition. Recent threats to the environment have also targeted the Kentucky River, including strip mining and urbanization in the region. It is important to preserve the remaining lands along the river as reserves and natural areas that are needed to sustain the biodiversity found there. So why is all this important? It’s all very important because it’s part of our history and culture, and if we don’t keep it we will lose it. Just look at the destruction to the American bald eagle in the last 50 years. Another thing we need to remember is that rivers are part of the environment. If we want clean water and wildlife we have to take care of our rivers, and rivers of course are the rivers’ highways, or in some cases “rivers of the world.”