Appalachian History

The city of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was established in the late 1880s by Scottish born Canadian Alexander Alan Arthur and his British backers in the American Association Ltd. They were drawn to the area by the promise of iron ore deposits in the Cumberland Mountains. Arthur purchased 80,000 acres of land and built his city in [...]

Middlesboro, KY is the only city in the US now known to be built within a meteor crater. William M. Andrews Jr., a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, said erosion and vegetation have hidden most signs of the meteor’s impact. However, enough evidence remains, he said, to support the conclusion. “You have the round [...]

Smallpox Patients at Middlesboro, Ky., Without Food Since Saturday. Federal Authorities May Act. NY Times, March 14, 1898. MIDDLESBORO, Ky., March 14—Surgeon Wertenbaker of the United States Marine Hospital Service investigated the situation here to-day, and in a report to Washington states that there are forty cases of variola, twenty-nine suspects in the pesthouse, and [...]

Now began the building of Middlesborough, the name which [my employer, Mr. Alexander A. Arthur] had proposed for the town having been adopted. Men of all trades and callings were entering Yellow Creek Valley, most of them having come by train as far as Pineville, ten miles away, whence they advanced by wagon, hack, horse, [...]