Stanton, KY

Stanton is the Powell County seat in eastern Kentucky, with 3,251 residents in the 2020 census. The first post office here was called Beaver Pond, a nod to the small pond formed by a beaver dam; in 1852 the settlement took the Stanton name. The original train depot still stands and now houses the Powell County Tourism Association. Stanton sits in the Red River floodplain, with the Red River Gorge Scenic Byway heading out toward Daniel Boone National Forest, Nada Tunnel, arches, and waterfalls. The county courthouse and the surrounding mountain roads give the town two different scales: county business in town, gorge country just beyond it.

Stanton’s annual Corn Festival is the signature weekend, held in early August at the city park beside the Powell County school campus. Corn-eating contests, car shows, talent events, local makers, cornhole, and food booths turn the park into a gathering place. The city also has a lending library, Powell County schools, and the usual municipal work of water, streets, parks, and meetings. Stanton is not only a gateway on the way to the gorge. It is a county seat with a depot, a festival, and a school-centered town grid, where local schedules still follow the seasons and the Red River roads.