Jenkins

History

In autumn of 1911, the Consolidation Coal Company purchased the current location of Jenkins as part of a tract of land in Pike, Letcher, and Floyd counties from the Northern Coal and Coke Company. After the acquisition was finalized, plans were made to extend the Lexington and Eastern Railroad from Jackson to a town named McRoberts. The plans also included the establishment of the town of Jenkins for George C. Jenkins, one of the Consolidation Coal Company's directors. Because of the need of hundreds of homes and other structures, nine sawmills and two brickyards were erected. A dynamo was built to temporarily generate power for the houses. Next, a temporary narrow-gauge railroad was built over Pine Mountain from Glamorgan, Virginia, in order to carry supplies to further the development of the town. Jenkins was home to minor league baseball from 1948 to 1951. The Jenkins Cavaliers played as members of the Class D level Mountain States League. Jenkins played home games at the Jenkins Athletic Field. Jenkins has been home to a Masonic Lodge Hall since October 16, 1912 In 1956, Consolidation Coal sold Jenkins to Bethlehem Steel. Bethlehem Steel closed the mine in 1988. Diana Baldwin and Anita Cherry, hired as miners in 1973, are believed to have been the first women to work in an underground coal mine in the United States. They were the first female members of United Mine Workers of America to work inside a mine. Cherry and Baldwin were hired by the Beth-Elkhorn Coal Company in Jenkins. During the Southeast Kentucky floods of 2020, water spilled over the top of the Elkhorn Lake dam above Jenkins, which is considered one of Kentucky's most dangerous. About 30 percent of Jenkins is vulnerable to flooding in the event of a dam break, and the town lacks a comprehensive…

Geography

Jenkins is located in eastern Letcher County at (37.179914, -82.632148). Its southern border is the Kentucky–Virginia state line, following the crest of Pine Mountain. U.S. Route 23 passes through Jenkins, leading north to Pikeville and south over Pine Mountain to Norton, Virginia. U.S. Route 119 leads southwest from Jenkins to Whitesburg, the Letcher county seat, and north with US 23 to Pikeville. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.34%, are water. The city is in the valley of Elkhorn Creek, a northeast-flowing tributary of the Russell Fork, part of the Levisa Fork–Big Sandy River watershed flowing north to the Ohio River.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  196
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  191
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  166
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  157
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  153
• Eastern Towhee

  Pipilo erythrophthalmus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  149
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  147
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  141

Largest nearby schools

• Letcher County Central High School
  High · Whitesburg · 779 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Jenkins Independent School
  Other · Jenkins · 475 students · 17.6:1 ratio
• Martha Jane Potter Elementary School
  Elementary · Whitesburg · 320 students · 12.8:1 ratio
• Fleming Neon Middle School
  Middle · Neon · 167 students · 12.8:1 ratio
• Letcher County Alternative Education Ctr
  High · Whitesburg · 1 students · 0.2:1 ratio
• Letcher County Area Technology Center
  High · Whitesburg

Most recent

• M 2.74 — 2024-05-22
  18 km SSE of Hyden, Kentucky
• M 2.56 — 2021-11-21
  9 km SSW of Abingdon, Virginia
• M 3.1 — 2021-10-26
  Tennessee-Virginia border region
• M 2.58 — 2021-02-12
  9 km NNW of Richlands, Virginia
• M 2.65 — 2020-11-09
  10 km NNW of Richlands, Virginia
• M 2.8 — 2019-08-21
  3 km SE of Welch, West Virginia