Harlan County is a county located in southeastern

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 ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 26,831. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Harlan. It is classified as a

moist county In the United States state of Kentucky, a moist county is a county the regulations in force of which are between those of a "dry county" (in which the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited) and a " wet county" (in which alcohol is sold). Th ...

—one in which alcohol sales are prohibited (a

dry county In the United States, a dry county is a county whose local government forbids the sale of any kind of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. The vast majority of counties n ...

), but containing a "wet" city—in this case

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, where package alcohol sales are allowed. In the city of Harlan, restaurants seating 100+ may serve alcoholic beverages. Harlan County is well known in

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

and

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

music, having produced many prominent musicians. During the 20th century, it was often a center of labor strife between coal mine owners and union workers, especially in the Harlan County War of the 1930s. The

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

industry began to decline in the 1950s. The loss of jobs resulted in a steadily declining population and depressed economy. Harlan is one of the U.S. counties with the highest prevalence of poverty and ranks among the lowest of counties in average

longevity Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...

and family income. Kentucky's highest natural point, Black Mountain (), is in Harlan County.

History

Eastern Kentucky is believed to have supported a large Archaic Native American population in prehistoric times, and has sites of other cliff dwellings. These sites were used by successive cultures as residences and at times for burials.Series 10-Built Environment: "Indian Cliff Dwelling"
Pine Mountain Settlement School, posted May 27, 2001; 2013-12-18; January 13, 2014 In 1923, an Indian Cliff Dwelling was discovered near Bledsoe, Kentucky. Built in a south-facing cliff, it was near a stream. While archeology was not yet well-developed as an academic discipline, several professors from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

came to the site to excavate it and try to assess the finds. They included "Dr. William D. Funkhouser, a zoologist; Dr. Arthur McQuiston Miller, a geologist; and Victor K. Dodge (called Major Dodge in the reports), all members of a group of scholars interested in early Native American rockshelters." They arrived soon after the discovery and "took charge of a controlled excavation of the site." They helped found the first department of anthropology and archaeology at the university, gaining departmental status in 1926. Historical tribes in this area included the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

and

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

. Before the American Revolutionary War, European Americans considered the area presently bounded by Kentucky state lines to be part of the Virginia colony. In 1776, it was established as Kentucky County by the Virginia colonial legislature, before the British colonies declared independence in the American Revolutionary War. In 1780, the Virginia state legislature divided Kentucky County into three counties: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln. In 1791 the previous Kentucky County was incorporated into the new nation as a separate state, Kentucky. This change became official on June 1, 1792. In 1799, part of Lincoln County was divided to create Knox County. Harlan County was formed in 1819 from a part of Knox County. It is named after

Silas Harlan Silas Harlan (March 17, 1753 – August 19, 1782) was one of the early settlers of Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region ...

. With the help of his uncle Jacob and his brother James, Harlan built a log

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

near Danville, which was known as "Harlan's Station". He had journeyed to Kentucky as a young man with James Harrod in 1774, serving as a scout and hunter. He reached the rank of

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

. Silas Harlan served under

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

in the Illinois campaign of 1778–79 against the British; he commanded a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

in John Bowman's raid on Old Chillicothe in 1779, and assisted Clark in establishing Fort Jefferson at the

mouth A mouth also referred to as the oral is the body orifice through which many animals ingest food and animal communication#Auditory, vocalize. The body cavity immediately behind the mouth opening, known as the oral cavity (or in Latin), is also t ...

of the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

in 1780. Two years later, in 1782, at the Battle of Blue Licks, he died leading the advance party. His fiancé at the time of his death, Sarah Caldwell, married his brother James Harlan. They were grandparents of

John Marshall Harlan John Marshall Harlan (June 1, 1833 – October 14, 1911) was an American lawyer and politician who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1877 until his death in 1911. He is often called "The Great Disse ...

, who became an attorney and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. Due to a growing regional population the county was reduced in size when Letcher County was formed in 1842, using a part of its territory. It was further reduced when Bell County was formed on August 1, 1867, from parts of it and Knox County. Finally in 1878, its northwestern part was partitioned to form Leslie County and its final boundaries were established. Coal was a major resource in the county and, as the nation developed industry, the region's coal was exploited in the coal mining industry. Given the harsh conditions of mining, labor attempted to organize to gain better working conditions and pay, beginning in the early 20th century. What was called the Harlan County War in the 1930s consisted of violent confrontations among strikers, strikebreakers, mine company security forces, and law enforcement. These events resulted in the county being called "Bloody Harlan." After the Battle of Evarts, May 5, 1931, Kentucky governor Flem D. Sampson called in the

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

to restore order. Ballads sung on the picket line at the Brookside mine in Harlan County were captured on film by documentarian

John Gaventa John Gaventa (born 1949) is currently the director of research at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, where he has been a Fellow since 1996. From 2011 to 2014, he served as the director of the Coady International Institut ...

. The county was the subject of the documentary film '' Harlan County, USA'' (1976), directed by Barbara Kopple. It documented organizing during a second major period of labor unrest in the 1970s, particularly around the Brookside Strike. In 1924, Conda Uless (Ulysses) "Condy" Dabney was convicted in the county of murdering a person who was later found alive. From the late eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, Harlan County and nearby counties were settled by numerous persons of multiracial descent, with African, European and sometimes American Indian ancestors. Many such families were descended from

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (; ) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who we ...

in colonial Virginia, who formed families of free white women and free, indentured or enslaved African and Black men. Because the mothers were free, their mixed-race children were born free. Descendants of such free people of color, some of whose members have been called

Melungeon Melungeon ( ) (sometimes also spelled Malungean, Melangean, Melungean, Melungin) was a slur historically applied to individuals and families of mixed-race ancestry with roots in colonial Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina who were primarily ...

, have documented the racial heritage of Harlan's early settlers through 19th-century photographs, DNA analysis such as the Melungeon DNA Project, and historic records. In 2007, the Ridgetop Shawnee Tribe of Indians formed as a non-profit organization to work on improving the lives of multiracial families and preserving Native American heritage, structures and artifacts in the area. It established the Kentucky Native American Data Bank, which has the names of 1,000 people of documented Native American descent related to this region; it is accessible for free on the Rootsweb Internet site. Now known as the Ridgetop Shawnee, they have become the heritage arm of Pine Mountain Indian Community, LLC, which since 2013 has taken the lead in working on economic development in the region. In 2019, the county was the site of the 2019 Harlan County coal miners protest, one in a long history of coal mining. Coal miners demanded back payment from a coal company that fired them shortly after declaring bankruptcy. They occupied a railroad track and prevented a coal train from leaving the county for almost two months.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water.

Features

The headwaters of the

Cumberland River The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...

are located in Harlan County: Poor Fork (extending from the city of Harlan east past the city of Cumberland and into Letcher County), Clover Fork extending East from above Evarts, and Martins Fork (extending through the city of Harlan west). The confluence is located in Baxter. Black Mountain, located east of

Lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica * Lynch's Crater, Queensland, Australia England * River Lynch, Hertfordshire * The Lynch, an island in the Rive ...

, is Kentucky's highest point, with an elevation of above sea level.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 421 * US 119

U.S. Highway 119 * Elongated circle 38

Kentucky Route 38 Kentucky Route 38, also known as KY 38, is a state highway in the U.S. state of Kentucky. Part of the State Secondary System, it runs east from U.S. Highway 421 in Harlan east via Brookside, Evarts, Benito, Black Bottom, and Holmes Mill ...

Kentucky Route 160

Adjacent counties

* Perry County (north) * Letcher County (northeast) * Wise County, Virginia (east) * Lee County, Virginia (southeast) * Bell County (southwest) * Leslie County (northwest)

National protected areas

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located at the border between Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, centered on the Cumberland Gap, a natural break in the Appalachian Mountains. The park lies ...

(part) * Blanton Forest

Demographics

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 33,202 people, 13,291 households, and 9,449 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 15,017 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 95.56%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.62%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.48% Native American, 0.29% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.08% from other races, and 0.95% from two or more races. 0.65% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. There were 13,291 households, out of which 32.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.30% were married couples living together, 13.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.90% were non-families. 27.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.00. The age distribution was 25.00% under the age of 18, 8.50% from 18 to 24, 27.50% from 25 to 44, 25.20% from 45 to 64, and 13.90% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.80 males. The median income for a household in the county was $18,665, and the median income for a family was $23,536. Males had a median income of $29,148 versus $19,288 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $11,585. About 29.10% of families and 32.50% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 40.10% of those under age 18 and 21.00% of those aged 65 or over.

Life expectancy

Of 3,142 counties in the United States in 2013, Harlan County ranked 3,139 in the longevity of both male and female residents. Males in Harlan County lived an average of 66.5 years and females lived an average of 73.1 years compared to the national average for the longevity of 76.5 for males and 81.2 for females. Moreover, the average longevity in Harlan County declined by 0.6 years for males and 2.6 years for females between 1985 and 2013 compared to a national average for the same period of an increased life span of 5.5 years for men and 3.1 years for women.

Economy

For 100 years, the economy of Harlan County and other counties in eastern Kentucky was based on

. The latter-twentieth-century decline of coal production and employment has led to widespread poverty and high unemployment. Although coal mining began much earlier, the first shipment of coal by railroad from Harlan County occurred in 1911 and coal production boomed thereafter. Mining employment in Harlan County rose to 13,619 in 1950. The number of employed miners had declined to 764 by June 2016. During the same period, the population of Harlan County declined from 71,000 to less than 28,000. Unemployment has been as high as 20 percent (September 1995) and has consistently been higher than the U.S. national average. Unemployment in December 2016 was 9.5 percent, compared to 4.8 percent in the nation as a whole. Harlan County ranked in the highest 10 percent of all United States counties in the prevalence of poverty among its residents. Annual per capita personal income in Harlan County was $27,425 in 2014 compared to a national average of $48,112. By 2016, more than half of the county's income came from transfers from the Federal government such as Social Security, Medicare and food stamps. As of 2018 new jobs are being located in the county as Teleworks USA has opened a hub in the city of Harlan. This has provided over 200 new jobs as of April 2018 SEKRI, located in the Blair community near the city of Cumberland, also announced expansions and added an additional 100 jobs in March 2018.

Politics

Harlan County's political history resembles West Virginia's. Under the

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

and Fourth Party systems it was a Republican county: except when supporting

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

's "Bull Moose" Party in 1912, it voted Republican for the presidential candidate in every election from 1880 to 1932.The Political Graveyard
Harlan County, Kentucky
/ref> However, with increasing unionization in the coal industry, it became a Democratic stronghold for six decades. With the exception of

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

's victories in 1952 and 1956, and

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

's landslide re-election in 1972 (in which it gave 59.4% of its votes to the Republican incumbent Nixon and 39.6% of its votes to Democratic presidential nominee

George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...

), it voted blue in every election from 1936 to 2000. Even in

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

's landslide re-election of 1984, Harlan County voted 51.9% for Democratic presidential nominee

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928April 19, 2021) was the 42nd vice president of the United States serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976. ...

, while incumbent Reagan received 47.1% of the vote. But the decline of the coal industry also changed politics in the county: in the 2004 Presidential election, Harlan County voted for the Republican presidential nominee for the first time in 32 years; Republican incumbent

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

received 60.2% of the vote, while the Democratic presidential nominee

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

received 39.1% of the vote. This rightward trend continued in 2008, when Republican presidential candidate

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

received 72.3% of the vote, while Democratic presidential nominee

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

received 26.1% of the vote. In 2012, the Republican gap was even larger, as the Republican presidential nominee

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

won the county over the Democratic incumbent Obama by a 64% margin (81.2% to 17.2%). In the 2016 election, its voters supported Republican nominee

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

over Democrat

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

by a 72.12% margin (84.87 to 12.75). In 2020 Donald Trump received 85.38% of the county's vote compared to 13.62% for Democratic nominee

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

, for a slightly lower margin of 71.76%. but an improvement over his previous percentage of 84.87%.

Elected officials

Education

Higher education

The county's only higher education institution is Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College (formerly known as Southeast Community College), a part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, with its main campus in Cumberland.

K–12 Harlan County public schools

The county has two K–12 public

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

s. Harlan County Public Schools covers all of Harlan County, except for the city of Harlan and some small unincorporated communities adjacent to the city. The district operates one high school,

Harlan County High School Harlan County High School (HCHS) is a public high school located in the unincorporated community of Rosspoint, Kentucky, served by the post office of another unincorporated community, Baxter. The school opened in August 2008 to replace the thre ...

, which opened in August 2008. The school nickname is Black Bears, reflecting the area's increasing black bear population. The new high school, located in the rural community of Rosspoint east of Harlan, replaced three other high schools: * Cumberland High School,

, served students from the cities of Cumberland, Benham, Lynch, and near the Letcher County border. * Evarts High School, Evarts, served the area from the Harlan City limits to the Virginia border. * James A. Cawood High School, Harlan, served students in central Harlan County. The district operates the following K–8 schools: * Black Mountain Elementary * Cawood Elementary * Cumberland Elementary * Evarts Elementary * Green Hills Elementary * James A. Cawood Elementary * Rosspoint Elementary * Wallins Elementary

Harlan Independent Schools

Harlan Independent Schools is a separate district covering the city of Harlan and operating the following schools: * Harlan High School * Harlan Middle School * Harlan Elementary School

K–12 private schools

* Harlan County Christian School (Putney)

Economy

Coal companies in Harlan County

* Alpha Natural Resources * Harlan-Cumberland Coal Company * JRL Coal Company * Sequoa Energy * James River Coal Company * US Coal

Area attractions

* Black Mountain Off-Road Adventure Area: This off-road park has been voted number one

all-terrain vehicle An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike or quad (if it has four wheels), as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, has a seat ...

(ATV) destination by ATV Pathfinder for two years running. It consists of more than set aside for quads and 4WD vehicle recreation. Harlan County also holds the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for the largest ATV parade. * Cranks Creek Lake * Kentucky Coal Mining Museum * Kingdom Come State Park; Elevation: ; Size: ; Location: On the outskirts of the city of Cumberland, and is connected to the Little Shepherd Trail. This state park was named after the popular Civil War novel, ''The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come'', by Kentucky author John Fox Jr. The park contains a picnic area, hiking trails, a fishing lake, a cave amphitheater, several lookouts and natural rock formations, including Log Rock and Raven Rock. It is the site of the annual Kentucky Black Bear Festival. * Martins Fork Lake * Pine Mountain Settlement School

Communities

Cities

* Benham *

* Evarts * Harlan (county seat) * Loyall *

Census-designated places

* Ages * Cawood * Coldiron * Kenvir * Pathfork * South Wallins * Wallins Creek

Other unincorporated communities

* Alva * Baxter * Blair * Bledsoe * Brookside *

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

* Closplint * Cranks * Dayhoit * Elcomb * Fresh Meadows * Grays Knob * Gulston * Highsplint * Hiram * Holmes Mill *

Putney Putney () is an affluent district in southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ...

* Pine Mountain * Rosspoint * Smith * Tacky Town * Teetersville * Totz * Verda

Notable people

* Bernie Bickerstaff, NBA coach * Rebecca Caudill, author of children's books *

Jerry Chesnut Jerry Donald Chesnut (May 7, 1931 – December 15, 2018) was an American country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American Sou ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

* Carl H. Dodd, Korean War soldier and

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

recipient * Wah Wah Jones, NBA player *

Nick Lachey Nicholas Scott Lachey ( ; born November 9, 1973) is an American actor, singer-songwriter, producer, TV personality and host. He rose to fame as the lead singer of the multi-platinum-selling boyband 98 Degrees and later starred in the reality ser ...

, singer, actor * Cawood Ledford, University of Kentucky basketball and football announcer * George Ella Lyon, author and poet * Florence Reece, songwriter * Louise Slaughter, Congresswoman * Jordan Smith, Winner of The Voice

In popular culture

Literature

Elmore Leonard Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story author and screenwriter. He was, according to British journalist Anthony Lane, "hailed as one of the best crime writers in the land". His earliest no ...

's novels ''Pronto'', '' Riding the Rap'', and ''Raylan'' feature Raylan Givens, a Harlan County native, and his short story "Fire in the Hole" has Givens returning to Harlan. In the James Jones novel "From Here to Eternity", Robert E. Lee Prewitt, a bugler in the Army and the main character, is from Harlan County. In the Nicholas Proffitt novel "Gardens of Stone", the main character, Army soldier Jackie Willow's family is from Harlan County.

Music

Harlan County is mentioned in many versions of the 18th-century folk song " Shady Grove". The famous labor song, " Which Side Are You On?", was written by Florence Reece in 1931 in and about Harlan. It has been covered by many artists from

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

and the Almanac Singers to

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, author and political activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic th ...

, the

Dropkick Murphys Dropkick Murphys are an American Celtic punk band formed in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996. The current lineup consists of co-lead vocalist and bassist Ken Casey, drummer Matt Kelly, co-lead vocalist Al Barr (on hiatus from the band since 202 ...

, and

Natalie Merchant Natalie Anne Merchant (born October 26, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter. She joined the band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and was lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the group. She remained with the group for their first seven albums before ...

. Harlan is mentioned in the

Aaron Watson James Aaron Watson (born August 20, 1977) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active since 1999, Watson has recorded several independent albums in his career. His 2015 album '' The Underdog'' reached No. 1 on Top Country Al ...

song "Kentucky Coal Miner's Prayer". It is mentioned in Robert Mitchum's recording "Ballad of Thunder Road" as a stop along a

moonshine Moonshine is alcohol proof, high-proof liquor, traditionally made or distributed alcohol law, illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of distilling the alcohol (drug), alcohol at night to avoid detection. In the first decades of the ...

route. It is the subject of the Darrell Scott song " You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive", which has been covered by

Brad Paisley Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You (David Kersh song), Another You". After this, he signed with ...

, Dave Alvin,

Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reac ...

, and Patti Loveless, among others, and has been heard in several versions on the TV drama '' Justified''. Dave Alvin also wrote and performed his song, "Harlan County Line" for an episode of '' Justified''.

Dierks Bentley Frederick Dierks Bentley (; born November 20, 1975) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Bentley moved to Nashville in the late 90s to pursue a career in music, leading up to his releasing the self-funded and independent album Do ...

's song "Down in the Mine", on his ''Up on the Ridge'' album, mentions Harlan. The band Spear of Destiny included the song "Harlan County", on their 1985 album '' World Service''. Harlan County is mentioned in the

Merle Travis Merle Robert Travis (November 29, 1917 – October 20, 1983) was an American country and western singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in Rosewood, Kentucky, his songs' lyrics were often about the lives and the economic exploitation of Ameri ...

song Nine Pound Hammer which he wrote in 1939; it has been covered by many bluegrass artists including

Doc Watson Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His ...

. Wayne Kemp wrote and recorded a song called "Harlan County." Harlan County is also the name of the first album by Jim Ford, 1969, as well as a song bearing the same name. The Dave Alvin song "Harlan County Line" takes place around the area of Harlan. Singer/Songwriter

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimmin ...

included a song titled "Harlan County" on his 2014 album ''I Haven't Got The Blues (Yet)''. Harlan County is mentioned as the setting of the

David Allan Coe David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville. He ini ...

song "Daddy Was A God Fearin' Man" in his 1977 album

Tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several tattooing processes ...

. Steve Earle wrote and recorded "Harlan Man" included on the 1999 Grammy-nominated album " The Mountain" recorded with the Del McCoury Band. The Cast Iron Filter song "Harlan County, USA" from the 2000 album "Further Down the Line" recounts a dramatization of the Eastover/Brookside coal miners' strike.

Films

* '' Harlan County, USA'' (1976). Documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple depicting the Eastover/Brookside coal miners' strike, which won the

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Academy Honorary Award, Special Awards to ''Kukan'' and ''Target for Tonight''. The ...

. * '' Harlan County War'' (2000). Dramatic film based on the Eastover/Brookside strike. Directed by Tony Bill and starring Holly Hunter. * '' Thunder Road (film)'' (1958). Dramatic film about moonshiners based in Harlan County and starring

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. He received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Holl ...

Television

* The FX television series '' Justified'' (2010–15), created by Graham Yost and based on

's Raylan Givens novels and short story, is set in the U.S. federal district of Eastern Kentucky and prominently in Harlan County. The show was filmed in California and Pennsylvania, however, not in Kentucky. * '' Kentucky Justice'', a reality TV show on

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

, is set in Harlan County and follows Sheriff Marvin J. Lipfird & his department.

References

External links

Harlan County Clerk Office

Harlan County Chamber of Commerce

Black Mountain Rec Park – Harlan County's Tourism

''Harlan Daily Enterprise'' newspaper

The Pine Mountain Settlement School

The Kentucky Highlands Project

Harlan County History and Genealogy
{{Coord, 36.86, -83.22, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-KY_source:UScensus1990 Kentucky counties 1819 establishments in Kentucky Populated places established in 1819

History

Geography

Features

Major highways

Adjacent counties

National protected areas

Demographics

2000 census

Life expectancy

Economy

Politics

Elected officials

Education

Higher education

K–12 Harlan County public schools

Harlan Independent Schools

K–12 private schools

Economy

Coal companies in Harlan County

Area attractions

Communities

Cities

Census-designated places

Other unincorporated communities

Notable people

In popular culture

Literature

Music

Films

Television

See also

References

Further reading

External links