Western Coal Field

The West Kentucky Coal Field, alternatively The North Pennyrile or simply Northwest Kentucky, comprises an area in the west-central and northwestern part of the state, bounded by the Dripping Springs Escarpment and the Pennyroyal Plateau and the Ohio River, but is part of the Illinois Basin that extends into Indiana and Illinois.^[1] It is characterized by Pennsylvanian age sandstones, shales and coal. In a recent effort to distinguish itself from its coal mining past, which in the last 10 years has all but completely disappeared by 2024 with only a scant few mines still operating, the area now usually refers to itself as the Green River Valley since around 2002, named for the Green River, a southern tributary that flows through every county in the region except Union and Hancock. Most regional businesses and many government services use either Green River Valley or simply Green River in their name. Nearly, all of the counties in the area are part of the television market known as the Kentucky–Illinois–Indiana tri-state area.