Cayce is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, su ...

(CDP) in

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

, United States, in the state's southwestern corner. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 119. The community was named for James Hardie Cayce, who established stores in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

, and Cayce. Cayce is centrally located in Kentucky's westernmost county, Fulton. The name is a homophone of "Casey". Cayce includes the area east and west from Willingham Bottom and Bayou de Chien Creek to Mud Creek and north and south from Moscow to the Middle Road (

Kentucky Route 166 Kentucky Route 166 (KY 166) is a state highway in Fulton County, Kentucky. It runs from Kentucky Route 125 southeast of Hickman to U.S. Route 45 and Kentucky Route 1648 Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a s ...

). Part of the town, known as the "junction", is at the junction of Kentucky Routes 94 and

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. This is the location of the service stations and cafe. Also at that junction (on the northwest corner) is an old elementary school (now closed), with a monument out front identifying Cayce as the hometown of American cultural icon, railroad engineer

Casey Jones John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Ce ...

(1864–1900), who grew up in the area.

History

Jones began work in 1878 for the north-south Mobile and Ohio Railroad (later the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, and since the early 1970s a part of the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad); by 1890 he had worked his way up to engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad. John Luther "Casey" Jones earned his place in American folklore and legend for remaining at the throttle in the 1900 crash in which he lost his life. In that era, railroaders with common surnames were often referred to by their hometown. John Luther Jones's nickname thus became "Cayce" Jones ("Casey" would later become the accepted spelling). In the late 19th century and early 20th century Cayce was a thriving southern business town. Today, however it is a residential small town.

December 2021 tornado

In December 2021, during a major tornado outbreak, Cayce was hit by the Western Kentucky tornado. Dozens of structures—including approximately 2/3^rds of all homes in the town—sustained major damage, and several were completely destroyed by winds rated up to

EF4 The Enhanced Fujita scale (abbreviated as EF-Scale) rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage they cause. It is used in some countries, including the United States, Canada, China, and Mongolia. The Enhanced Fujita scale repl ...

. These included the town's fire department and the former Cayce High School. After killing 1 person in Cayce, the tornado continued traveling east through multiple counties and cities in Western Kentucky, causing widespread devastation and killing 58 people. In the months following the storm, residents struggled with trauma from the outbreak and the slow rebuilding process, with many continuing to live in trailers or converted containers.

Demographics

References

Bibliography

*(1928). "Life and Times of Casey Jones." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

''. January 12. Census-designated places in Fulton County, Kentucky Census-designated places in Kentucky Casey Jones {{FultonCountyKY-geo-stub