Lotts Creek (Perry, Kentucky)

Lotts Creek is a creek in Perry County and Knott County, Kentucky in the United States.
It is a tributary of the North Fork Kentucky River that joins it at Darfork downstream of Hazard at an altitude of .
It is long from its mouth to where it splits into the Young's (a.k.a. Young) and Kelly (a.k.a. Big) Forks.

The most likely source of the name "Lotts" is a William Harrison Lott of Clark County, however there is contradictory evidence on various historical maps, including a spelling "Lots" that is used after 1850, where before 1850 it was regularly spelled "Lotts".
The "Lots" spelling, according to one story, comes from when landowner "Danger Nick" Combs fenced off his land into lots; but in 1939 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names settled on the "Lotts" spelling.

Tributaries and other locations

The mouth of Lotts Creek at the North Fork tributaries at Hazard, Kentucky is at altitude above sea level, with the highway bridge that crosses it there being at altitude .

The course of the river is generally north-westerly, with an overall gradient of .
Along most of its course it flows through tree-lined valleys, widening to at Grigsby, with scattered residential development across almost wholly private property.
The creek bed is mainly rocky, with sand bars and gravel islands in its lower half where it widens to wide.

*Its major tributaries are:
** Trace Fork upstream at an altitude of , mouth whose further tributaries and locations are in its article
** Grigsby Creek upstream from the Lotts Creek Community Church, mouth
** Elk Fork upstream at an altitude of , mouth
** Clear Fork upstream at an altitude of , mouth
** Dickson Branch upstream at an altitude of , mouth
** Young's Fork upstream at an altitude of , confluence with Kelly/Big at
*** Buck Branch upstream, mouth at
*** Elk Lick Fork upstream at an altitude of , mouth at
** Kelly Fork (a.k.a. Big Fork) upstream at an altitude of

Darfork

The name of Darfork has more confusion surrounding it than "Lotts".
It has variously been "Danfork", "Darkfork", and even "Darbfork".

Darfork was the name of a coal town, railway station, and post office that were used by the Darb Fork Coal Company and was in fact upstream from the river mouth.
The post office was established on 1927-12-12 by Kelley Lee Phillips and was originally to be called either Tauber or Urschel.
Tauber was the station on the local railway spur line along Lotts Creek.
This line had a further spur going up what was then called Danger Fork, after the aforementioned "Danger Nick" Combs.

Adding to the confusion are the Dark Fork (as named in 1914) minor tributary between the mouth of Lotts Creek and Trace Fork, whose local community was named Darb Fork, and where the Darfork post office moved to in 1936.
Dark Fork had been earlier known as the Helen Combs branch, and was later renamed Darb Fork on maps; and after a series of short local moves the Darfork post office closed in 1965.

A L&N railway spur line along Lotts Creek from North Hazard to Danfork was completed on 1919-03-13, and was followed the same year by further spurs from Danfork up Trace Fork (q.v.).

Grigsby

Grigsby Creek was named for a family of Grigsbys, descendants of a Thomas Grigsby who was a fellow settler with "Danger Nick" Combs.
A Grigsby post office was established on 1904-10-05 by Cora Grigsby, slightly upstream from the creek mouth and east of the church.
The post office closed in 1933.

In 1918, D. Grigsby had a mine here.

Cordia

The Cordia post office was established on 1899-10-10 by postmater Cora Everidge.
The origin of the name is unknown, with possibilities including Everidge's sister and "Uncle Solomon" Everidge's second wife Cordia "Aunt Cord" Combs.
Everidge's original choice of name, rejected by the USPS, had been Mason.
Its probable location, from information on the application form, was at the mouth of Coles Fork, a minor fork of Lotts.
It was moved downstream to just downstream of the Lotts Creek (a.k.a. Cordia) school after the latter was established in 1933, and closed in 1957.

Elic and the Kelly and Young's Forks

The Elic post office was established on 1908-08-04 by postmaster Adeline Young.
It was initially on Kelly Fork, upstream of where Cordia was located at the time.
It was named after Adeline's father Alexander "Elic" Young.
It later moved along Young's and closed in 1934.

In 1918, Mansard Young had a mine on Buck Branch, and Reese Young had one on a minor left fork of Young's Fork upstream.
John Young owned land upstream on Young's Fork, and William Young had a mine on Elk Lick Fork upstream.

Thomas Kelly's mine was upstream on Kelly Fork, and Benjamin Everidge's upstream.

See also

*List of rivers of Kentucky

Cross-reference

Sources

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Further reading

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Rivers of Kentucky
Rivers of Perry County, Kentucky
Coal towns in Kentucky