Beattyville, KY

Beattyville is Lee County’s seat at the meeting of the North and South Forks of the Kentucky River. The place was first known as Taylor’s Landing, then Beatty after pioneer landowner Samuel Beatty; in 1872, the incorporated town became the county seat. That river junction frames the town’s early commercial role, from boat building and flour milling to timber, coal, and basket making in the wider county. The Woolly Worm Festival adds an unmistakable modern marker to the calendar, with races and a grand champion billed as the year’s weather predictor. Beattyville is an eastern Kentucky courthouse town where river work and woolly worms share the introduction.