Hyden, Kentucky

Hyden is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Leslie County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 365 at the 2010 census. It is located at the junction of U.S. Route 421 and Kentucky Route 80, along the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River.HistoryThe area was first settled around 1800 by the Sizemore family, a Native American family migrating from North Carolina, with a brief stay in Hawkins, Tennessee, before making it to Kentucky. John "Rock House" Sizemore and wife, Nancy (Bowling) Sizemore (descendant of John Rolfe and Pocahontas) lived in a rock house about a hundred yards up from the mouth of the creek which would later bear his name (RockHouse Creek). John Rock House later sold the land to a Lewis man who then donated the land to the government, which became the town of Hyden. The town was established in 1878 and incorporated in 1882, and was named after John Hyden, a state senator of the time who helped form Leslie County. The mountainous terrain made the region difficult to access except by river, which was no longer the dominant form of transportation by the late 19th century, hindering growth.Frontier Nursing University opened in Hyden in 1939.Hyden briefly came to national attention when the Hurricane Creek mine disaster occurred in late 1970, five miles away.