Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer

Stearns, Kentucky
Stearns, Kentucky

Stearns is a McCreary county town about a mile south of Whitley City. The site was settled about 1840 and known as Hemlock. In 1902 the area was bought by the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company which established the town. The Stearns Company controlled about 200 square miles in Kentucky and Tennessee and operated several mines, an electric generation plant, a sawmill, and a railroad. Stearns remained a company-owned town until about 1960. Stearns has never been incorporated, but it qualifies as an unincorporated urban place under Kentucky law. The Stearns post office opened in 1902. The population of the Stearns census designated place in 2010 was 1,416.

Located in Stearns is the depot for the Big South Fork Scenic Railway, which travels through the Big South Fork National Recreation Area along the route of the Kentucky and Tennessee Railway.

Stearns has been designated a Kentucky Trail Town.

Whitley City, Kentucky Stearns, Kentucky Smith Town, Kentucky To Blue Heron, Kentucky To Cumberland Falls State Resort Park To Williamsburg, Kentucky To Pine Knot, Kentucky To Monticello, Kentucky To Parkers Lake, Kentucky Daniel Boone National Forest Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area Daniel Boone National Forest Daniel Boone National Forest Daniel Boone National Forest Daniel Boone National Forest Daniel Boone National Forest
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