"The
fifty-ninth county in order of formation, Whitley County is
located in southeastern Kentucky, along the Tennessee state line.
It is bordered by Bell, Knox, Laurel, and McCreary counties and
has an area of 443 square miles. The county was formed January
17, 1818, from a section of Knox County and was named in honor of
Col. William Whitley, a Kentucky pioneer and Indian fighter. The
county seat, Williamsburg was originally
called Whitley Courthouse.
The topography of Whitley County is hilly to mountainous, a steep
and rugged landscape. Three-fourths of the county is forested
with oak, black walnut, yellow poplar, hickory, and pine. The Daniel Boone National Forest covers
38,000 acres of the county, including Jellico Mountain, with an
elevation of 2,124 feet. The major water sources are the
Cumberland and Laurel Rivers.
In April 1759 explorer Dr. Thomas Walker and his party entered
the Whitley County area at Blake's Fork Creek. Raiding parties of
Indians frequently attacked and killed hunters and trappers.
Among those killed, probably by Cherokee, were Joseph Johnson at
Lynn Camp and the son of Joe Tye on Big Poplar Creek. In 1786
Indians attacked the large group of settlers known as McNitt's
company and killed twenty-one of them in the area between the Big
and Little Laurel Rivers .
Williamsburg and Corbin are the two
incorporated towns in the county. Corbin is the county's largest
town. The county's largest employers, located in Corbin, are
American Greetings Corporation; NCR Systems Media, which makes
business forms; National Standard Company, which manufactures
industrial wire, cloth, and fibers; Tri-County Manufacturing and
Assemblies, which produces typewriter components; and CSX
Transportation. CSX completed a $41 million expansion of its
railroad service facilities at Corbin in 1988.
Although the rugged terrain limits agriculture in Whitley County,
some tobacco, corn, and livestock are raised. Lumber and coal
have been the mainstays of the county's economy. Among the
mineral resources of the area are coal, oil, iron, and minute
traces of silver.
Whitley County is also the home of Cumberland College in Williamsburg.
Cumberland Falls , the
"Niagara of the South," is located in Whitley County. Cumberland Falls State Resort Park offers a lodge, cottages, camping, swimming, hiking,
horseback riding, and convention facilities. Laurel River Lake
covers 5,600 acres in Whitley County. These attractions, along
with the Nibroc (Corbin spelled backwards) Festival and the
scenic trails of the Daniel Boone National Forest, make Whitley
County a major recreation area.
The population of Whitley County was 24,145 in 1970, 33,396, in
1980; and 33,326, in 1990."
Article by Ron Bryant
"The Kentucky Encyclopedia" c 1992 University Press of
Kentucky, Editor in Chief John E. Kleber; Associate Editors
Thomas D. Clark; Lowell H. Harrison; James C. Klotter.
This page was last updated March
10, 1997