Heightened interest in the organic rich shales of Mississippian and Devonian age as a source of oil has resulted in intensive leasing along the shale outcrop belt in Kentucky. Eleven cores of the black shales from the counties of Rowan, Bath, Montgomery, Powell and Estill were examined and analyzed in an effort to relate details of stratigraphy to the oil rich horizons and to indicate areas of potential resources. This report will not treat Estill County regarding the resource assessment. Formations of interest are the Sunbury Shale (Early Mississippian Age) and the Ohio Shale( Late Devonian age). The name, Ohio Shale, is used throughout this report, but it was mapped as the New Albany Shale in the southern part of the study area by the U.S.G.S. The generalized stratigraphy (Early Mississippian through the Middle Devonian Age) is, in descending order: Borden Formation, Sunbury Shale, Bedford Shale, and Ohio Shale. Useful key markers in the sequence are the Three Lick Bed and Foerstia zone; which are both in the Ohio Shale. The Three Lick Bed divides the Ohio Shale into the Cleveland Member, above, and the Huron Member, below. The Ohio Shale is underlain by the Middle Devonian Boyle Dolomite or the Silurian Bisher Dolomite, or the Crab Orchard Formation, also the Silurian in age. The organic content is highest in the Sunbury Shale and in the Cleveland Member of the Ohio Shale. In the cores, the total thickness of the Sunbury Shale range from 17 to 4 feet (5.2 to 1.2 m). The thickness of the Bedford Shale, ranges from 18.0 to .2 feet (5.5 to .1 m). The Cleveland Member of the Ohio Shale ranges from 49.0 to 33.0 feet (14.9 to 10.1 m). Assuming a stripping ratio of 2.5:1, more than 4.5 x10 6 acre feet of shale having a carbon value of greater than 8% is mineable by means of existing methods. A conservative estimate of the amount of the potential strippable shale-oil resources in the four county area is 3.88 x 10 9 bbls.