Clay City, KY

Clay City sits in Powell County’s Red River Valley, below the foothills of the Eastern Appalachians. The first European settlement in the area dates to 1786, when Stephen Collins and his brother found pyrite and established Collins Forge, the first iron forge west of the Allegheny Mountains. The settlement became Clay City in the 1880s and incorporated in 1890. The 2020 census counted 1,193 residents. The old forge story is still a useful way to picture why this town sits where it does.

The city’s present-day map still mixes river, town services, and older industrial history. The Red River runs through the low-lying valley, while Furnace Mountain, a Korean Zen Buddhist temple, sits among the surrounding hills. Clay City provides water, sewer, garbage collection, and police protection, and its city park has ball fields, playground equipment, and a walking track. The place has the feel of a small service city whose early iron story still sits beneath its Red River streets.