Why was or is "striiped or tiger " maple the wood of choice for the Kentucky?

[Hurricane ( of Virginia)]

With the abundance of wood available and other arms being done in other woods, why maple???

[Birddog6]

Because it is close grained & hard, pretty, tough, durable, stainable to many shades, reasonable in weight, you name it, it is the best "all around" gun wood......

[northmn]

One other reason may also be that maple has been used commonly for wooden bearings up to the turn of the century.  I had a disc with maple bearings.  I was told that maple does not rot when greased like other woods.  Also, how many original walnut stocks have you seen cracked through the wrist?  Military guns were made out of walnut, finer personal guns out of maple.  The curl in maple was also more rare. 

DP

[J. Talbert]

Practicality and aesthetics, would seem the 2 biggest factors I'd say.
Without the availability of nice European walnut, colonial gunsmiths would have been looking for a hard, tight-grained, carveable substitute, and hard maple filled the bill.  The curl was just an aesthetic bonus when and where it could be had.