Kentucky Horse Farms & Black Hamlets
A map of horse farms, each shown by a horse symbol, covering the same area as the topographic sheet used in this course. Forbes magazine says that the most costly horse farm on the market today is Highland Farm, a n "equestrian property" outside of Lexington, KY. Its $60 million price tag includes 115 breed mares, 30 barns, 19 houses, and 2,000 bluegrass acres. The main house has 9 bedrooms and 12 baths [Source: Too Much, Fall 2001, p. 5.].
All topographic maps on these web pages come from the Kentucky Centerville Quadrangle (1:24,000).
The conventional map symbols for houses and barns have very different shapes here. Why?
Diagram of a typical horse farm. | An actual horse farm on a topographic map. |
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The photographs below show you how the cultural landscape
looks on the Centerville map.
Study these before or while you do the
map assignment.
The big house, barns, wooden fences, and
horses.
Horse farm scene with a very large
barn.
Look at a close up of
1) the main horse
barn on the Kentucky (State) Horse
Park,
2) a specialized horse barn
for breeding only, a distinctive horse
gate
3) surface ponds -- shown as blue
areas on the topographic maps -- are created to provide water for horses in this
karst topography.
Karst is a special type of landscape that is formed by the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone and dolomite. In the United States, 20 percent of the land surface is karst and 40 percent of the groundwater used for drinking comes from karst aquifers. Natural features of the landscape such as caves and springs are typical of karst regions. Karst landscapes are often spectacular scenic areas. The sinkhole plains and caves of central Kentucky serve as examples.
Compare two specific examples of topographic symbols and actual scenes on the ground:
- L-shaped horse barn and a worker house
- mile-long driveway on the topographic map and the actual scene
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