Laurel Creek is a

creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

that is a

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 Goose Creek river in

Clay County, Kentucky Clay County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 20,345. Clay County is included in the Corbin, Kentucky micropolitan area. . Its county seat is Manchester. The county was forme ...

. It is long. The name comes from the proliferation of mountain laurel on its riverbanks.

Tributaries and post offices

The Creek mouth on Goose is upstream of the mouth of Beech Creek, and upstream from

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida N ...

. * Its major tributaries are: ** Skull Branch upstream, mouth at ** Mill Pond Hollow upstream, mouth at ** Chicken Branch upstream at an altitude of , mouth at ** Orchard Branch upstream at an altitude of , mouth at ** Collins Branch upstream, mouth at ** Falls Branch (a.k.a. Morgan Branch) upstream at an altitude of , mouth at ** Hogskin Branch upstream, mouth at

Fall Rock, Hubbardsville, and Laurel Creek post office

Laurel Creek's eponymous post office was established by Joseph Hubbard on 1865-04-21, lasting until 1968. It was originally located at the mouth of what is now named Morgan Branch, that used to be named Falls Branch, and primarily served the area of Hubbardsville. It moved downstream to the mouth of Collins Branch some time before 1902. It was a rural branch of

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

post office from 1966 until its closure. Morgan Branch is also the location of the village, school, and post office of Fall Rock. 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 from Pinhook to Fall Rock after the post office when schooling was consolidated in the county in the 20th century. Hubbardsville's second post office was named Caution, from 1902 to 1918, although postmaster George Hall wanted to call it Clio after his 5-year-old daughter. That clashed with an existing post office of the same name in Whitley County, however.

Millpond

The Millpond post office was originally named Bessie by postmaster John L. Campbell, who operated it between 1907-11-15 and 1909-06-15, possibly after his wife Elizabeth. Its second postmaster Oscar Hornsby, who reëstablished it on 1921-05-14 in his own general store near to Lower Laurel School, wanted to retain the name; but the name Millpond was assigned instead. Local oral histories disagree as to the origin of this name. It was either named after the pond of Joe Hornsby's flour mill that was built in the 1880s, or it was named after the pond of an old sawmill. Either way, the mill has long since vanished; and at the time of closure in August 1963 the postoffice was located just downstream of Mill Pond Hollow.

General

In 1918, on Laurel itself John Coldiron had a mine upstream, Joseph L. Hornsby had one upstream, James Barnett one upstream, Hannibal Morgan one upstream, Daniel Baker one upstream, and George Hall one upstream. Mrs Hounschell had one upstream on Chicken Branch. John Howard's mine was upstream on Orchard Branch. Elijah Campbell's was upstream on Falls Branch.

Kentucky Route 11 Kentucky Route 11 (KY 11) is an American highway maintained by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet that runs from Maysville to Barbourville. The route from Maysville to Mount Sterling is being upgraded on a new alignment as part of a " ...

mostly follows the course of the Creek.

Connections

A gap at the head of Hogskin Branch connects to the Rader Branch of

Little Goose Creek Little Goose Creek is a creek originating on the east slope of the Big Horn Mountains in north-central Wyoming.* Route After dropping over and entering a steep canyon, the creek flows out of the Big Horn Mountains and into the Powder River Basin. ...

References

Sources

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