McCreary County, Kentucky

McCreary County is a county in Kentucky, United States, on the Cumberland Plateau about 75 road
miles south of Lexington and just north of the Tennessee line. It had a population of 16,888 at
the 2020 census, an estimated 17,124 by 2025, and covers 431 square miles (1,120 km2) centred near
36°44′N 84°29′W.

Whitley City is the county seat; its postal code is 42653. McCreary is the only Kentucky county
with no incorporated city or town — every place on the list below is a census-designated
place or an unincorporated community. The county holds 3 census-designated places and 16
unincorporated communities, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 21147.

Towns & Villages in McCreary County

McCreary County has 19 named places on record: 3 census-designated places (CDPs) with their
own Census Bureau population counts, and 16 unincorporated communities — crossroads,
former coal camps and rural neighborhoods with no population figure of their own. Blue Heron is
included for reference even though no one lives there today; it is a preserved former coal camp
inside the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, not a residential community.

The old version of this page listed 14 additional names — Bauer, Beulah Heights,
Creekmore, Fidelity, Flat Rock, Funston, Gilreath, Greenwood, Hickory Grove, Hollyhill,
Nevelsville, Silerville, Slavans and Smith Town — that could not be confirmed against the
Census Bureau or the county’s own gazetteer entry and have been dropped rather than guessed at.

ZIP Codes

• 42635 — Pine Knot
• 42647 — Stearns
• 42653 — Whitley City (the county seat and courthouse)
• 42634 — Parkers Lake

Barthell, Blue Heron, Comargo, Co-Operative, Hill Top, Honeybee, Marshes Siding, Oz, Revelo,
Sawyer, Strunk, White Oak Junction, Wiborg, Worley and Yamacraw have no ZIP code of their own;
mail there is delivered under one of the four codes above, depending on which is closest by
road.

Geography

McCreary County sits on the Cumberland Plateau in south-central Kentucky, a landscape of
sandstone gorges and forested ridges rather than open farmland. Of its 431 square miles, 427 are
land and 4.1 are water, about 1.0 percent — most of that water is the Big South Fork of the
Cumberland River, which cuts a deep gorge through the county’s east side. The Big South Fork
National River and Recreation Area covers roughly 18 percent of the county, and the Daniel Boone
National Forest covers roughly 43 percent, making McCreary one of the most heavily forested
counties in Kentucky. Yahoo Falls, a waterfall inside the national forest, is one of the tallest
in the state.

Pulaski County borders McCreary to the north, Laurel County to the northeast, Whitley County
to the east, Campbell County, Tennessee to the southeast, Scott County, Tennessee to the south,
and Wayne County to the west. Pulaski
County, Laurel County, Whitley County, Campbell County, Tennessee, Scott County, Tennessee and Wayne County all border McCreary
directly.

Demographics

McCreary County had a population of 16,888 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 17,124 residents. Pine Knot and Stearns are the two largest named communities,
each home to well over a thousand people, followed by Whitley City with 968. Median household
income runs $33,750 (2024 estimate), far below Kentucky’s statewide figure of $61,118 (2023 ACS)
and among the lowest of any county in the state. The poverty rate stood at 38.9 percent in 2024,
more than three times the national rate. Population density works out to roughly 40 people per
square mile of land, low even by rural Appalachian standards, reflecting a county with almost no
incorporated towns to concentrate its population.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about 886
workers, followed by manufacturing at 855 and educational services at 531. The federal United
States Penitentiary, McCreary, three miles east of Pine Knot, is one of the county’s largest
single employers. Coal and timber dominated the local economy for most of the twentieth century
— the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, headquartered in the town of Stearns, built and ran
the company towns of Stearns, Barthell and Blue Heron — but the county’s last operating
underground mine closed in 1994. Tourism has grown around that history: the Big South Fork
Scenic Railway runs seasonal excursion trains from Stearns into the national river gorge, and
the McCreary County Museum occupies the old Stearns Coal and Lumber Company headquarters
building.

History

Kentucky’s General Assembly created McCreary County on 12 March 1912, carving it out of
Pulaski, Wayne and Whitley counties. It was the 120th and, to date, last county formed in
Kentucky — the 1891 state constitution set a minimum population and area for any new
county, and no proposal since has met that bar. The county was named for James B. McCreary, a
Confederate soldier who served two separate terms as Kentucky’s governor, 1875–1879 and
1911–1915; the legislature acted during his second term.

The Stearns Coal and Lumber Company, founded by Michigan lumberman Justus Smith Stearns,
opened its Kentucky operations in the early 1900s and built Stearns as its headquarters town,
followed by the mining camps of Barthell and Blue Heron. Blue Heron’s underground mine, known as
Mine 18, closed in December 1962 and the town was abandoned; the National Park Service recreated
it in the 1980s as an outdoor interpretive site with metal “ghost structures” marking
where the original buildings stood, now part of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation
Area.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses McCreary County. US 27 runs north–south through Whitley
City, Pine Knot and Stearns, and KY 92 runs east–west across the county.

• Somerset — about 30 miles north
• Oneida, Tennessee — about 18 miles south

McCreary County Airport, near Pine Knot, handles general aviation only. No Amtrak route serves
this part of Kentucky; Norfolk Southern operates freight-only rail sidings through the county.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is McCreary County located?
It sits on Kentucky’s Cumberland Plateau, on the Tennessee border, bordered by Pulaski, Laurel,
Whitley and Wayne counties in Kentucky and Campbell and Scott counties in Tennessee.

What is the population of McCreary County?
16,888 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 17,124 by 2025.

How big is McCreary County?
431 square miles (1,120 km2), of which 427 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of McCreary County?
Whitley City, an unincorporated community — one of only two unincorporated county seats in
Kentucky.

How many towns and villages are in McCreary County?
McCreary has no incorporated cities or towns. It has three census-designated places —
Pine Knot, Stearns and Whitley City — and 16 unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does McCreary County use?
42635 for Pine Knot, 42647 for Stearns, 42653 for Whitley City and 42634 for Parkers Lake.

What is McCreary County known for?
Being the only Kentucky county with no incorporated city, and for Blue Heron, a former coal
mining camp preserved as an interpretive site inside the Big South Fork National River and
Recreation Area.

More counties in this state: Towns
and villages in Kentucky.