03/11/2026
Only 45 minutes to Cumberland Gap National Park and the crater!
A meteorite hit southeastern Kentucky 300 million years ago and left a 3-mile-wide crater in the mountains.
In 1886, Alexander Arthur — backed by British investors — built a city inside it. He came for iron and coal, and what followed was one of the most ambitious company towns in Appalachia: streetcar lines, electric lights, and a population that swelled past 6,000 within a year.
Middlesboro is the only city in the world where coal is mined inside an impact crater. In 1926, locals built a house from 42 tons of coal — it still stands on Cumberland Avenue as the Chamber of Commerce.
The Bell County Historical Society & Museum, housed in a 1912 Carnegie Library, displays shatter cones from the impact alongside the county’s coal heritage. And the Pinnacle Overlook at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park gives you a view straight down into the crater basin.
Middlesboro is part of the Kentucky Coal Heritage Trail in Eastern Kentucky. Download the free app for audio histories and navigation across the trail.
