Prestonsburg is a city and the county seat of Floyd County in Daniel Boone Country.
Understand
Prestonsburg was the site of the biggest Civil War battle in eastern Kentucky, at a place called Middle Creek. Even though it's only 14 miles from the next county seat over, Paintsville, in these Appalachian hills the little towns feel rather isolated, and the inhabitants are holding on as their economic mainstay, coal mining, is fading away.
Get in
The remoteness will probably require you to drive here over long stretches of curvy Appalachian roads. Hwy 23 is the main roadway that accesses this area known as the Big Sandy Valley River Valley.
Get around
See
- Middle Creek Battlefield, 2968 KY-114, 37.65104°, -82.81440°, +1 606 886 1341. Daily 7AM-7PM. The Confederate forces were always poking around trying to stir things up until this battle finally erupted just to the west of present day Prestonsburg, pitting future President James Garfield against Confederate Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall on Jan 10, 1862. 2021-08-21
- Country Music Highway. Hwy 23 is designated the Country Music Highway. You can travel its entire length from Pikeville to Ashland, but a good segment is between Prestonsburg and Paintsville where the Kentucky Opry (see Do section) and Loretta Lynn's childhood home and the US 23 Country Music Highway Museum can be reached (see Paintsville). 2021-08-21
- East Kentucky Science Center & Planetarium, 1 Bert Combs Dr, 37.68544°, -82.77895°, +1 606 889 8260. Th-Sa 1-4PM. Planetarium and natural science exhibits. 2021-08-21
- West Prestonsburg Bridge, 37.67222°, -82.77920°. Nice rainbow arch bridge. 2021-08-21
- 1958 Bus Crash Site, 37.67005°, -82.71531°. Scene of a horrific bus crash where a school bus impacted a tow truck and then catapulted into the freezing Levisa Fork where it was carried away and submerged, resulting in the loss of 26 people, mostly children. 2021-08-21
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