Upton, KY

Upton is a home rule-class city on the Hardin-LaRue county line in Kentucky, where the 2020 census counted 704 residents. U.S. Route 31W follows the line through the center, placing the city in the Elizabethtown-Fort Knox metropolitan area. The boundary is part of Upton's physical layout, with homes and businesses spread across both counties. Upton took its present name in 1856 for George Washington Upton, who helped develop the settlement as a stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

The railroad made Upton part of the Civil War map. Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan targeted the city, then moved on to destroy bridges at nearby Bacon Creek in Bonnieville. That episode sits alongside Upton's older role as a rail stop and its current road-centered layout. Hardin and LaRue meet down the middle of town, Route 31W carries the main traffic, and Kentucky Route 224 points west toward Leitchfield. Upton keeps its railroad-era name in a place now organized around county lines and state highways.