The magic city: Footnotes to the history of Middlesborough, Kentucky, and the Yellow Creek Valley

"Middlesboro, Kentucky--nestled in a great meteorite crater at the foott of Cumberland Gap--holds a unique place in story of America's westward migration and the history of Appalachia. It was through the Gap that a seemingly emdless pageant of immagrants furiously trampled their way into Kentucky in the late eighteenth century... The central history of Middlesborough and its surrounding area has encompssed a vast array of human experience. "In telling the story of this bild experiment, Ann Dudley Matheny has traced the many strands of local history and woven them in a fascinating tapestry. She has not been squemish in dealing with facts from the past, including acts of violence and traumas of social change that have been a part of Middlesborough's history over the past century. Matheny also analyzes the varied mixture of people and motivations that have given Middlesborough its distinctive history. At the same time she shows the impact on the city's inhabitants of the region's isolating geographical lockage."