Whitley City, KY

Whitley City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in McCreary County, Kentucky, with 968 residents in the 2020 census. It is the county seat and one of only two unincorporated county seats in Kentucky, with the courthouse on Main Street and U.S. 27 close by. The community sits along the South Fork of the Cumberland River, in the wooded plateau country between Stearns and the Big South Fork region. The courthouse lawn is still a central address.

McCreary County was created in 1912, but the courthouse lawn carries an older story: a Kentucky historical marker recalls the first commercial oil well, struck in 1818 while Marcus Huling and Andrew Zimmerman were drilling for salt along the South Fork. County offices, McCreary Central High School, and roads into Daniel Boone National Forest and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area shape current routines. Whitley City is a Kentucky county seat where courthouse work, river history, mountain roads, and an early oil strike share one small map.