alt=Morel Mushrooms are commonly found in Estill County in the spring, with Irvine's Mountain Mushroom being dedicated to them.|thumb|[[Morchella|Morel Mushrooms are commonly found in Estill County in the spring, with Irvine's Mountain Mushroom Festival being dedicated to them.]]

Estill County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,163. Its county seat is Irvine. The county was formed in 1808 and named for Captain James Estill, a Kentucky militia officer who was killed in the Battle of Little Mountain during the American Revolutionary War. Estill County is a moist county meaning that the county seat, the city of Irvine, allows the sale of alcohol after the October 9, 2013, vote, but not the rest of Estill County outside the Irvine city limits. Estill County has two adjacent towns, known as the twin cities, Irvine and Ravenna. Both cities sit along the Kentucky River in the central part of the county. Ravenna is home to a former CSX Transportation facility, now owned by Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation for the restoration of Chesapeake and Ohio 2716. It conducts the Ravenna Railroad Festival annually in late summer, and the historic Fitchburg & Cottage Furnaces are located here. Irvine hosts the annual Mountain Mushroom Festival over the last weekend of April, which celebrates the abundant Morel Mushrooms found in the region.

History

Estill County was formed in 1808 from land given by Clark and Madison counties, it was Kentucky's 50th county. It was originally settled by European settlers entering Kentucky via old buffalo and Indian trails and traveling through Boonesborough in what is today Madison County. The Fitchburg furnace was a particularly impressive engineering feat. Standing 81 feet tall, the furnace is the largest charcoal furnace in the world, and one of the largest 25 dry-stone masonry structures in the world. The iron industry declined after the Civil War when iron deposits and timber to fire the furnaces were depleted, and innovation made charcoal furnaces obsolete.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.0%) is water. Estill County is located at the contact of two Kentucky regions: the Bluegrass and the Cumberland plateau, because of this the county is known as the location where the "Bluegrass kisses the Mountains."

thumb|[[Fitchburg Furnace located in Estill County. Legacy of 19th century iron industry. Largest charcoal furnace in the world.]]

thumb|[[Knobs region|Knobs viewed from the Lilly Mountain Nature Preserve in southwestern Estill County]]

Estill County contains two important rivers. With the Red River, famous for its gorge in neighboring Powell County, forming the northern border. And the Kentucky River bisecting the county. Much of Estill County's development, including the towns of Irvine and Ravenna, is located in the fertile bottomlands of the Kentucky River. Additionally, due to the Kentucky River's deep valley and Estill County's location at the edge of the Cumberland plateau the county's topography is striking. The Pottsville Escarpment is prominent in the county, marking the divide between the Bluegrass and the mountains. Because of this topography total relief is nearly 1000 feet in the county, with the highest point being Zion Mountain, located about miles southwest of Irvine at 1,511 feet, and the lowest point being the confluence of the Kentucky River and the Red River at 566 feet. Other high points include Happy Top Mountain, 1,500 feet; Preacher Estes Mountain, 1,475 feet; Peter Mountain, 1,454 feet; Low Knob, 1,450 feet; and Big Round Mountain, Buzzard Roost, and McKinney Mountain, each at 1,420 feet.

Rivers and streams

  • Drowning Creek Crooked Creek

Adjacent counties

  • Clark County (north)
  • Powell County (northeast)
  • Lee County (southeast)
  • Jackson County (south)
  • Madison County (west)

Protected areas

  • Daniel Boone National Forest (part)
  • Lilly Mountain Nature Preserve

Demographics

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Although it lies in the Bluegrass and Knobs regions, Estill County was more akin to the eastern Pennyroyal Plateau to its southwest in being strongly pro-Union during the Civil War. Indeed, a larger proportion of Estill County's population volunteered for the Union Army than the population of any free state, or of any Kentucky county except the famous Republican bastion of Owsley County. Consequently, Estill County has been strongly Republican ever since the end of Reconstruction – since 1888 the county has voted Democratic only for Woodrow Wilson in 1912, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and Lyndon Johnson in 1964, with the biggest of these three victories in 1932 being FDR's by a mere one hundred and eighty-seven votes out of over six thousand one hundred.

Elected officials

{| class=wikitable

|-

| colspan="3" |Elected officials as of January 3, 2025

|-

! scope=row|U.S. House

| |Andy Barr (R)

| |

|-

! scope=row|Ky. Senate

| |Brandon Smith (R)

| |30

|-

! scope=row|Ky. House

| |Bill Wesley (R)

| |91

|}

Communities

Cities

  • Irvine (county seat)
  • Ravenna

Other communities

  • Barnes Mountain
  • Cobhill
  • Cressy
  • Crystal
  • Drip Rock
  • Fox
  • Furnace
  • Hargett
  • Leighton
  • Palmer
  • Patsey
  • Pryse
  • Red Lick
  • South Irvine
  • Spout Springs
  • Tipton Ridge
  • Wisemantown
  • Winston

See also

  • Estill County Schools
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Estill County, Kentucky

References

  • The Kentucky Highlands Project
  • Estill County development authority's website
  • Estill County Water District 1
  • Estill County History & Ancestry