e sides of the contest, father and son
frequently taking up arms on opposite sides. When the war closed, the
people went to work with a will to repair the damages incident to the
struggle, and no state has shown greater progress in the development of
its natural resources.

Probably no state has greater resources capable of development. The coal
beds of Eastern Kentucky comprise an area of more than ten thousand square
miles or about one-fourth the area of the whole state, and the western
coal fields underlie four thousand square miles, or about one-tenth of the
area of the state. Inexhaustible deposits of iron ore are found, and the
forests are exceedingly rich in fine lumber.

The state has made wonderful progress in the development of the school
system. In fact, no other state has a more practical and efficient school
system, nor has any state a more determined set of school workers.

Kentucky has had three permanent Capitol buildings. The last was completed
in 1909 at a cost of $1,750,000, and is considered one of the handsomest
structures of its kind in the Union.

Great virtues are sometimes accompanied by great faults; but Kentucky's
faults have been those born of isolation and inaccessibility. Now that her
railways are penetrating into even the remotest districts, bringing her
citizens into closer and quicker communication with the outside world, her
people rapidly are becoming united in their efforts to make her future
eclipse her glorious past. With the purest Anglo-Saxon blood in the United
States forming the greater part of her citizenship, and the riches of her
forests and mountains even now just beginning to pour into the laps of the
people, a great future is inevitable for Kentucky, "The land of the China
Brier."

[Illustration: Ancient Mound, Greenup County]

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

The Table of Contents has been added in the electronic version.

Spelling variations were not normalized ("pack horse" and "packhorse",
"saltpetre" and "saltpeter").

The following typographical errors were corrected:

title page, period added following "Co"
page 4, "possibilty" changed to "possibility"
page 9, "the the" changed to "the"
page 14, "apppearance" changed to "appearance"
page 29, period added following "1828"
page 31, "His" changed to "his"

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF KENTUCKY***