Middlesboro, Kentucky

• Open map evidence
• Research guide
• Bell County

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 8 records

• American Association, Limited, Office Buildinglisted 1978
• Brooks Houselisted 2009
• Cumberland Gap Historic Districtlisted 1980
• Cumberland Gap National Historical Parklisted 1966
• Middlesboro Downtown Commercial Districtlisted 1983
• Mt. Moriah Baptist Churchlisted 1985
• St. Mary's Episcopal Churchlisted 1984
• Middlesboro Jewish Cemeterylisted 2017

Surveyed buildings and structures 2 records

• Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Pinnacle Overlook, Middlesborofederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Visitor Center, Middlesborofederal building survey, 2 photographs

Middlesboro fell from 10,334 to 9,405 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1886 USGS Cumberland Gap quadrangle1:125000
• 1888 USGS Cumberland Gap quadrangle1:125000
• 1891 USGS Cumberland Gap quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
• 1903 USGS Middlesboro quadrangle1:48000
• 1927 USGS Middlesboro quadrangle1:62500
• 1930 USGS Middlesboro quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
• 1935 USGS Cumberland Gap quadrangle1:24000
• 1955 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
• 1955 USGS Middlesboro South quadrangle1:24000
• 1957 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
• 1959 USGS Middlesboro South quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1960 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
• 1963 USGS Johnson City quadrangle1:250000
• 1974 USGS Middlesboro South quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1976 USGS Middlesboro South quadrangle1:24000
• 1977 USGS Middlesboro quadrangle1:100000

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 181 fires within 5 miles of Middlesboro between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,762 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 33 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Davis Station (historical)
• Binghamtown
• Edgewood
• Noetown
• Premier
• Stony Fork Junction

Every fire recorded in Bell County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Middlesboro: 2 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Limestone, Dimension. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Bell County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Middlesboro in 56 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 28 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 7 flash flood, 7 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Bell County

2 papers published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 901 issues, 4,903 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 1 issue from 1895, 1,755 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 498153. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.