Pike County Historical Society - Pike County Historical Society

Pike County: People and Places

John Dils Jr.

James A. Garfield

Zebulon Montgomery Pike

Mission Statement

The Pike County Historical Society, LLC is a duly registered limited liability corporation with the State of Kentucky. It was formed May 11, 2017 and has received 501 (C) 3 status from the Internal Revenue Service, May 1, 2019. It is manage by three (3) founding members who hold regular meetings and maintain records of the same.

The mission of the Pike County Historical Society, LLC is to research, archive, categorize, advertise, interpret, and share knowledge of the history of Pike County, including regions which have influenced Pike County’s development and/or whose history has been influenced by Pike County, as well as to advocate the present structures, artifacts, and physical locations which are of interest to Pike County’s past. The mission will be accomplished via researching the Appalachian cultural arts, humanities, personal, social, political, economic, and industrial forces which have contributed to shaping the history of Pike County and the area heretofore mentioned.

Peach Orchard Bottom: Pikeville, Kentucky Through 1865

Pike County Historical Society is pleased to announce its release of Peach Orchard Bottom: Pikeville, Kentucky Through 1865. Hard cover, illustrated. $39.95 plus tax and necessary postage Purchase Book Peach Orchard Bottom, located along what was originally called Louisa Fork of Big Sandy River in the center of the southern

Whitewater Action 2022 Russell Fork

Not long after the 1756 Big Sandy Expedition, we have heard of countless stories about explorers passing through the Sandy Ridge Gap. We would have to wonder how many hide-stretched canoes made the treacherous journey down the Russell Fork – Sandy Creek many years ago. The photos displayed below

W.C. Hambley

Pikeville 1883

A. R. Crandall Photo 1883 – Taken while working with the KY Geological Survey. March 5th 1825 James Honaker

A Young Man Hanged and a Family Avenged

A Young Man Hanged and a Family Avenged “Ellison Hatfield-Mounts, a Hatfield confederate who had admitted to the shooting of Alifair McCoy, and was then hung by the neck until dead.” Those were the newspaper headlines so numerously printed across the country, when the small mountain town of Pikeville Kentucky

Imlay’s Map of Silver Mine, 1790

FACT OR FICTION? TALES OF LOST TREASURE have charmed people through the ages, from Oak Island to the Superstition Mountains. The valleys of the upper Big Sandy and North Fork of the Kentucky River are no exception. There is one story of hidden Appalachian riches that has survived for over

Breaks, looking upstream 2021

Big Sandy Coal and Mining Company: The First Industrial Mines in Pike County

Antebellum coal mining in Pike County was a hit-and-miss proposition, not only for entrepreneurs but for laborers, as well. Sometimes sufficient rainfall allowed the coal to be transported downriver, but dry spells just as often kept the coal boats moored to the riverbank. Even before the formation of Pike County

Pike County Historic Society
December 22, 2021