Appalachian History

The city of Middlesboro, Kentucky, was established in the late 1880s by Scottish born Canadian Alexander Alan Arthur and his British backers in the American Association Ltd. They were drawn to the area by the promise of iron ore deposits in the Cumberland Mountains. Arthur purchased 80,000 acres of land and built his city in the Yellow Creek Valley of Kentucky.

The exact year in which the golf course opened is not definite, but 1889 is the earliest year that golfing has been confirmed. That makes the course the oldest continuously played course in the United States and the second oldest course in the nation. The course has had several names over the years. The original name was Kentucky Golf Club, later Middlesboro Golf Club, and the current name of the Country Club of Middlesboro.

In the early years there was no clubhouse. The 1st tee was located at what is now the corner of 25th Street and Worcester Avenue and headed west to Cirencester Avenue and then on to the remainder of the course that is still played today. In the 1920s the course moved west to accommodate the growing need for residential housing.

In 1889 30 men and women were members at the country club. Each paid the annual $2 membership fee. Of course, in the 1880s there were no golf carts. Golfers carried their own bags or used caddies. Some of the first caddies were Henry Sandifer, Ed Slusher, Mark Colgan, Paul Colgan, Arthur Rhorer, Ed Sampson, and Arden Kennedy.

By 1893 the boom in Middlesboro was over and the Baring Brothers Bank in London cancelled Arthur's funding. The course continued to be used sparingly until 1921 when Judge Joe Bosworth Jr. helped reorganize the club and started on a plan of growth. The officers of the Club in 1921 were R.E. Howe - President, F.P. Scales - Vice-President, J. M. Milles - Secretary, and E.P. Nicholson - Treasurer.

In 1921 there were 150 members, and that was also the year the original clubhouse was constructed. In 1924 Middlesboro Country Club played host to the Kentucky State Amateur Championship.

For many years Middlesboro Country Club was also the home of one of the few Par 6 holes (660 yards) in the country. Number 7 was shortened to add flood control but remains a very challenging hole that few can reach in 2.


source: www.middlesborocountryclub.net/history.htm


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Middlesboro, KY is the only city in the US now known to be built within a meteor crater. William M. Andrews Jr., a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, said erosion and vegetation have hidden most signs of the meteor's impact. However, enough evidence remains, he said, to support the conclusion.

"You have the round shape, shattered rock in the middle and deformed rocks around the sides that have been bent, folded or shoved," Andrews said. "That's pretty strong evidence that it was a meteor impact crater."

"Middlesboro is in this strangely round valley in the middle of Appalachia," he said. "You don't get round valleys here. It's not normal."


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The town (also spelled “Middlesborough”) was established in 1886 to exploit iron and coal deposits. The town's founder, Alexander A. Arthur, apparently did not know of the crater's extraterrestrial origin. Omni magazine listed the site in a 1979 article as one of the 15 outstanding craters in North America (there are more than 170 known meteor craters on the continent) and also as the most circular.

The Middlesboro Crater is located in the Appalachian Mountains, exposed to the surface, between the Cumberland Mountains and Pine Mountain. The theory is that a meteor more than 1,500 feet in diameter struck the earth here less than 300 million years ago and carved a hole approximately 3 miles in diameter, with slopes that rise as high as 1,900 feet.

As much as 80 percent of the meteor either was blown back into the earth’s atmosphere or disintegrated on impact, and life may have been destroyed within 50-100 miles of the impact. Geological maps indicate that the center of impact occurred where the YMCA pool is now on North 30th St, and that the crater perimeter ran through what is now 12th St and Cumberland Avenue intersection. Geologists believe that before the meteor hit, the area around Middlesboro may have been a wide plain, much higher than the 2,400 ft Pinnacle overlook at Cumberland Gap. Geologists say that rock formations in the area do not substantiate the theory that the Gap itself may have been created by the impact and explosion of the meteor.

sources: Kentucky Stories, by Byron Crawford(Turner Publishing, 2001)
Associated Press article in St Petersburg Times (Sept 20, 2003)
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/20/Worldandnation/Kentucky_town_sees_a_.shtml

related post: "Bald is Beautiful"


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