Fall Rock is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Fl ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. They are located on the Morgan Branch

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of Laurel Creek, just under 1 mile upstream from the branch mouth, on

United States Highway 421 United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

, the school across the road from the post office. Fall Rock post office was established on 1924-05-22 by postmaster John Campbell, and named after the original name of Morgan Branch which was Falls Branch or Fall Rock Branch. This in turn came from the name of the high waterfall that powered a local grist mill and was also used for social events. However, the village and school were originally named Pinhook, local oral histories stating that this was after a local fisherman who made

fishing hook A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English ''angol'' and Proto-Germanic ''*angulaz''), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by i ...

s out of

safety pin A safety pin is a variation of the regular Pin (device), pin which includes a simple Spring (device), spring mechanism and a clasp. The clasp forms a closed loop to properly fasten the pin to whatever it is applied to and covers the end of the p ...

s bought in the local store. Named John Campbell (not the aforementioned postmaster) he gained the name "Pinhook" Campbell. The village and school were renamed after the post office when schooling was consolidated in the county in the 20th century.

Cross-reference

Sources

* Unincorporated communities in Clay County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky {{ClayCountyKY-geo-stub