Editing Lewis County, Kentucky (section)

==History==
Kentucky was part of Virginia until 1792. The District of Kentucky began with three counties: Fayette, Jefferson and Lincoln and Fayette. Part of Fayette County was split off as Bourbon County in 1785; a portion of Bourbon was split off in 1788 as Mason County; in 1806 Lewis County was split off from Mason and named for [[Meriwether Lewis]] of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]].<ref>{{Cite web |year=2000 |title=Lewis County |url=http://www.kyenc.org/entry/l/LEWIS04.html |access-date=August 22, 2014 |publisher=The Kentucky Encyclopedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=luoxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA36 |title=The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 1 |publisher=Kentucky State Historical Society |year=1903 |page=36}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Lewis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F5FQAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA464 |title=History of Kentucky |year=1877 |isbn=9780722249208 |page=464|publisher=Library Reprints, Incorporated }}</ref>

The county's elevation ranges from 485 to 1400 feet above sea level. Its heavily forested hills and hollows have produced some of the nation's best oak lumber. Lumbering was long the county's principal economic activity; today the largest categories of employment are health care and social assistance (814 persons), construction (680) and manufacturing (600). <ref>https://datausa.io/profile/geo/lewis-county-ky/.</ref>