Hot Spot 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 ...

and former

coal town A coal town, also known as a coal camp or patch, is a type of company town or mining community established by the employer, a mining company, which imports workers to the site to work the mineral find. The company develops it and provides reside ...

in Letcher County,

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. It was named for the Hot Spot Coal Company. Other names for the community have been Smoot Creek, Dalna, Elsiecoal, and Premium. It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.

Description

Hot Spot is located near Smoot Creek on Kentucky Route 160.

History

The Smoot Creek post office serviced a community in Letcher County near Smoot Creek waterway from 1890 to 1914. The post office moved with coal camps, changing names to Dalna in 1918 and Elsiecoal in 1923. In 1932, Hot Spot was named for the Hot Spot Coal Company. It since has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names. Its associated post office was renamed Premium in 1942. The Premium post office closed in 2022.

References

Unincorporated communities in Letcher County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky Coal towns in Kentucky {{LetcherCountyKY-geo-stub