The Eastern Kentucky Coalfield is part of the Central Appalachian bituminous coalfield, including all or parts of 30 Kentucky counties and adjoining areas in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee.[1] It covers an area from the Allegheny Mountains in the east across the Cumberland Plateau to the Pottsville Escarpment in the west. The region is known for its coal mining; most family farms in the region have disappeared since the introduction of surface mining in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Daniel Boone National Forest is located on rough but beautiful terrain along and east of the Pottsville Escarpment. There are many natural arches and sandstone cliffs that are excellent for rock climbing and rappeling. The Red River Gorge, part of the National Forest, is known worldwide in rock climbing circles.[2]
The Sheltowee Trace Trail runs NaNkm (-2,147,483,648miles) north and south, through the region.
During the American Civil War most of this region leaned toward the Union due to its makeup at the time of mostly small farmers, but more than 2,000 men from this area formed the 5th. Kentucky Vol. Inf., known as the Army of Eastern Kentucky, under Gen. Humphrey Marshall, C.S.A. During the Great Depression, New Deal programs and the organizing of the United Mine Workers of America made many of the eastern counties Democratic.
Eastern Kentucky has a rich musical heritage. Many nationally acclaimed country music singers and musicians are from the area. These include: Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, The Judds, Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, Patty Loveless, Dwight Yoakam, Tom T. Hall, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jean Ritchie, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapleton, and George S. Davis.
As of the 1980s, the only counties in the United States where over half of the population cited "English" as their only ancestry group were in the hills of eastern Kentucky (and made up nearly every county in this region).[3] In the 1980 census, 1,267,079 Kentuckians out of a total population of 2,554,359 cited that they were of English ancestry, making them 49 percent of the state at that time. Large numbers of people of Scottish and Irish ancestry settled the area as well.[4]
The Eastern Kentucky Coalfield covers 31 counties with a combined land area of 13,370 sq mi (34,628 km2), or about 33.1 percent of the state's land area. Its 2000 census population was 734,194 inhabitants, or about 18.2 percent of the state's population. The largest city, Ashland, has a population of 21,981. Other cities of significance in the region include Pikeville, London, and Middlesboro. The state's highest point, Black Mountain, is located in the southeastern part of the region in Harlan County.
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The following list consists of Eastern Kentucky cities with populations over 4,000 according to the 2020 United States Census:[5]
| Rank | City | Population in 2020 | County | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ashland | 21,625 | Boyd | |
| 2 | Middlesboro | 9,405 | Bell | |
| 3 | Corbin | 7,856 | Whitley and Knox | |
| 4 | Pikeville | 7,754 | Pike | |
| 5 | London | 7,572 | Laurel | |
| 6 | Mount Sterling | 7,558 | Montgomery | |
| 7 | Flatwoods | 7,325 | Greenup | |
| 8 | Morehead | 7,151 | Rowan | |
| 9 | Williamsburg | 5,326 | Whitley | |
| 10 | Hazard | 5,263 | Perry | |
| 11 | Paintsville | 4,312 | Johnson |
The region's economy is centered around the natural resources available, which includes coal, timber, natural gas, and oil. Recently, tourism has become a leading industry in the region, due to the region's cultural history and the creation of state parks.
Calgon Carbon constructed the Big Sandy Plant near Ashland in 1961 and it has since become the world's largest producer of granular activated carbon. The facility produces over 100 million pounds of granular activated carbon annually.[6]
Most of the counties in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield are classified as "persistent poverty counties". The definition of a persistent poverty county by the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture is that 20 percent or more of the total county population has been living in poverty since the 1980 census.[7]
A June 2014 article in The New York Times identified six counties in the Kentucky Coal Field as among the "hardest places to live in the United States." The lowest-ranking counties were Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie, and Magoffin. They ranked among the bottom ten counties nationwide. The factors which accounted for the low ranking of those six counties were unemployment, prevalence of disabilities, obesity, income, and education.[8] The Times declared Clay County the hardest place to live in the U.S.[9]
The Appalachian Regional Commission was formed in 1965 to aid economic development in the Appalachian region, which was lagging far behind the rest of the nation on most economic indicators. The Appalachian region currently defined by the Commission includes 420 counties in 13 states, including all counties in Kentucky's Eastern Coalfield. The Commission gives each county one of five possible economic designations—distressed, at-risk, transitional, competitive, or attainment—with "distressed" counties being the most economically endangered and "attainment" counties being the most economically prosperous. These designations are based primarily on three indicators—three-year average unemployment rate, market income per capita, and poverty rate.[10]
From 2012 to 2014, "Appalachian" Kentucky—which includes all of the Eastern Coalfield and several counties in South Central Kentucky and a few in the eastern part of the Bluegrass region—had a three-year average unemployment rate of 9.8%, compared with 7.6% statewide and 7.2% nationwide.[10] In 2014, Appalachian Kentucky had a per capita market income of $18,889, compared with $28,332 statewide and $38,117 nationwide. From 2010 to 2014, Appalachian Kentucky had an average poverty rate of 25.4%—the highest of any of the ARC regions—, compared to 18.9% statewide and 15.6% nationwide. Twenty-five Eastern Mountain Coal Field counties—Bell, Breathitt, Carter, Clay, Elliott, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, McCreary, Menifee, Morgan, Owsley, Powell, Rowan, Whitley, and Wolfe—were designated "distressed," while four – Laurel, Montgomery, Perry, and Pike – were designated "at-risk." Two Eastern Coalfield counties were designated "transitional" — Boyd and Greenup. No counties in the Eastern Coalfields region were given the "attainment" designation or were designated "competitive."
The following table illustrates the economic status of each county.
| County | Population (2010) | Unemployment Rate (2012–14) | Per Capita Market Income (2014) | Poverty Rate (2010–14) | Status (2017) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bell | 28,691 | 11.9% | $14,644 | 32.7% | Distressed | |
| Boyd | 49,542 | 8.6% | $24,337 | 19.1% | Transitional | |
| Breathitt | 13,878 | 13.7% | $14,386 | 31.5% | Distressed | |
| Carter | 27,720 | 12.0% | $18,014 | 18.7% | Distressed | |
| Clay | 21,730 | 13.3% | $11,531 | 35.7% | Distressed | |
| Elliott | 7,852 | 13.5% | $10,529 | 39.6% | Distressed | |
| Floyd | 39,451 | 11.7% | $18,473 | 29.5% | Distressed | |
| Greenup | 36,910 | 9.3% | $23,879 | 18.0% | Transitional | |
| Harlan | 29,278 | 15.4% | $13,620 | 32.1% | Distressed | |
| Jackson | 13,494 | 15.4% | $13,496 | 31.7% | Distressed | |
| Johnson | 23,356 | 10.1% | $19,008 | 25.3% | Distressed | |
| Knott | 16,346 | 13.5% | $14,271 | 26.5% | Distressed | |
| Knox | 31,883 | 11.9% | $15,549 | 33.8% | Distressed | |
| Laurel | 58,849 | 9.2% | $21,051 | 23.3% | At-Risk | |
| Lawrence | 15,860 | 10.5% | $15,399 | 23.5% | Distressed | |
| Lee | 7,887 | 11.7% | $11,750 | 33.4% | Distressed | |
| Leslie | 11,310 | 15.0% | $15,357 | 23.9% | Distressed | |
| Letcher | 24,519 | 14.2% | $15,955 | 24.5% | Distressed | |
| Magoffin | 13,333 | 16.3% | $11,139 | 26.8% | Distressed | |
| Martin | 12,929 | 9.4% | $14,826 | 33.9% | Distressed | |
| McCreary | 18,306 | 12.4% | $9,763 | 37.7% | Distressed | |
| Menifee | 6,306 | 11.2% | $15,656 | 28.8% | Distressed | |
| Montgomery | 26,499 | 8.2% | $23,093 | 25.2% | At-Risk | |
| Morgan | 13,923 | 10.3% | $13,451 | 29.7% | Distressed | |
| Owsley | 4,755 | 11.9% | $10,528 | 39.2% | Distressed | |
| Perry | 28,712 | 12.3% | $20,131 | 26.6% | Distressed | |
| Pike | 68,736 | 10.6% | $21,285 | 24.1% | At-Risk | |
| Powell | 12,613 | 10.1% | $18,403 | 27.5% | Distressed | |
| Rowan | 23,333 | 7.8% | $18,642 | 26.0% | At-Risk | |
| Whitley | 35,637 | 10.0% | $17,321 | 24.1% | Distressed | |
| Wolfe | 7,355 | 13.3% | $10,532 | 44.3% | Distressed |
Most of the counties in the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield rank in the lowest ten percent of U.S. counties in average life expectancy. Both men and women have average life spans that are several years less than the average life span in the United States. Moreover, many counties have seen a decline in the life expectancy of men and/or women since 1985. Average life expectancy in some counties is as low as 70 years as compared with the life expectancy of some counties in the U.S. of more than 80 years. Factors influencing the health of residents include a high prevalence of smoking and obesity and a low level of physical activity.[11]
Contrary to what its name suggests, Eastern Kentucky University is actually located outside of the Eastern Coalfield, in the Bluegrass-region city of Richmond.
As a whole, East Kentucky was long a Democratic stronghold. The only two counties in the state to vote against Mitch McConnell in each of his six senatorial campaigns through 2020 have been Wolfe and Elliott Counties, both in East Kentucky. However, the region has swung dramatically to the right recently. In 2004, eleven counties in East Kentucky supported Democratic candidate John Kerry, and in 2008, even as the nation as a whole shifted Democratic, the number of East Kentucky counties supporting Democratic candidate Barack Obama fell to just four, and in 2012 fell to just one.[12] Every county in East Kentucky supported Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020 with at least 50% of the vote. In fact, each of the three most Republican counties in Kentucky (in terms of vote proportion) were all in East Kentucky (namely Leslie, Jackson and Martin Counties). Each gave less than a tenth of their vote to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate.
Elliott County, Kentucky, serves as a good representation of the political transformation throughout the region. The county had the longest streak in the nation of any county voting Democratic,[12] but has shifted hard to the right in recent elections. The county went from giving Democrat Barack Obama more than 60% of the vote in 2008 to giving Republican Donald Trump more than 70% of the vote just eight years later. Despite this, Democrats continue to do well in local elections, and the party maintains an overwhelming advantage in party registration. Much of this area is represented by Kentucky's 5th congressional district represented by 22-term congressman Hal Rogers, who also serves as the Dean of the United States House of Representatives.