On March 14, 1890, the city of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was officially incorporated\u2014though it was originally spelled \u201cMiddlesborough.\u201d Sitting just west of the Cumberland Gap, this city has a history as unique as its geography. Middlesboro isn\u2019t just another Appalachian city; it was built in a meteor crater and once aspired to be the \u201cPittsburgh of the South.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottish-born entrepreneur Alexander Arthur had big dreams for Middlesboro in the late 19th century. With financial backing from British investors, he envisioned a booming industrial city of 250,000 people, complete with electric streetcars, running water, and a world-class sporting commons. He even started construction on the Powell Valley Railroad to link the city to Knoxville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s early years saw an iron and steel industry boom, but the local ore wasn\u2019t of high enough quality to sustain it. Financial troubles, a devastating fire in 1890, and the Panic of 1893 led to the collapse of Arthur\u2019s ambitious project. By 1894, the city\u2019s name was shortened to Middlesboro.<\/p>\n
The city wasn\u2019t done making history. In the early 1890s, local pianist Ben Harney helped shape the ragtime genre while playing in saloons. Middlesboro even petitioned to host the 1892 World\u2019s Fair. The city installed the first electric streetcars west of Washington, D.C., enhancing tourism and local transportation.<\/p>\n
By the 1930s, Middlesboro had earned a new nickname: “Little Las Vegas.” Slot machines, saloons, and brothels lined the streets, and shootouts became a daily occurrence. Under the control of the notorious Ball brothers, Middlesboro gained national attention as one of the most dangerous cities in the country.<\/p>\n
Despite its early struggles and lawless reputation, Middlesboro has survived and evolved. Home to the Middlesboro Country Club\u2014one of the oldest continuously played golf courses in the U.S.\u2014and rich in Appalachian heritage, it remains a fascinating piece of Kentucky history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On March 14, 1890, the city of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was officially incorporated\u2014though it was originally spelled \u201cMiddlesborough.\u201d Sitting just west of the Cumberland Gap, this city has a history as unique as its geography. Middlesboro isn\u2019t just another Appalachian city; it was built in a meteor crater and once aspired to be the \u201cPittsburgh of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[93,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-places","category-the-1890s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Middlesboro-ky-2016.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6TX4A-TV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3470,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3467\/revisions\/3470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storiesofappalachia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}