Harlan (Kentucky)
| Harlan | |
|---|---|
 Harlan, Kentucky (2015) |
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| Location in Kentucky | |
 |
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| Basic data | |
| Foundation : | 1796 |
| State : | United States |
| State : | Kentucky |
| County : | Harlan County |
| Coordinates : | 36 ° 50 ′ N , 83 ° 19 ′ W |
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) |
| Residents : | 1,745 (as of 2010) |
| Population density : | 387.8 inhabitants per km 2 |
| Area : | 4.5 km 2 (approx. 2 mi 2 ) of which 4.5 km 2 (approx. 2 mi 2 ) is land |
| Height : | 363 m |
| Postal code : | 40831 |
| Area code : | +1 606 |
| FIPS : | 21-34732 |
| GNIS ID : | 0493746 |
Harlan is a city in Harlan County in the US state of Kentucky . In 2013 Harlan (still) had 1,693 inhabitants - about half as many as in the 1970s and about a third of the population of 1940. The small town is the county seat of the county of the same name and - along with Greenup and Henderson - one of the three district capitals in Kentucky, where city and county names match.
Location and geography
Harlan is located in the western, not quite as mountainous half of Harlan County immediately south of the confluence of the Martins Fork in the Cumberland River . Near the junction at the north end of the city, the two US federal highways Route 421 and Route 119 , the two most important connecting roads in the county, cross. The former runs through the county from north to south, the latter from east to west. Immediate neighborhoods, clockwise from the north are: Baxter, Rosspoint, Brookside, Chevrolet, Grays Knob, Mary Alice, South Wallins, Wallins Creek and Loyal.
Just like the climate in the Appalachian region as a whole, that in Harlan is also determined by warm, humid summers and mild to cold winters. According to the Köppen scheme , Harlan is in the east side climatic zone - a variant of the subtropical climate that characterizes the US east coast as well as the south Atlantic areas of South America , parts of northern Italy , eastern Australia and central China .
history
Just like other parts of East Kentucky, the region around Harlan was settled mainly by English , Scottish and Irish settlers from Virginia , who moved over the Appalachians in the 18th century and settled west of the mountain slopes. The settlement, later named Harlan, was founded in 1796 by Samuel and Chloe Howard. The original name of the new settlement was Mt. Pleasant. Since this name was often used in Kentucky and was therefore not very clear, the post office was given the name of the county. The county itself was formed in 1819 from parts of Floyd County and Knox County . It was named after Silas Harlan, an early settler and commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War , who died in 1782 at the Battle of Blue Licks - one of the last battles in the Revolutionary War.
Like the rest of the spots on the western edge of the Appalachian Mountains, Mt. Pleasant was characterized by subsistence farming and grew accordingly slowly. During the civil war , the city and the surrounding region came temporarily under the aegis of Confederate troops. In 1863, Confederate guerrilla groups burned the city administration building in retaliation for a similar act in Lee County , Virginia. In the decades after the Civil War, the city continued to expand - especially to the southeast along the Clover Fork (which flows into Martins Fork from the east). In 1886 a new City Hall was built on Central Street. In the decades after the civil war, a feud between the clans of two founding families - the Howards and Turners - received national attention . Similar to the well-known feud between the Hatfields and McCoys on the border with West Virginia , this one was triggered by petty disputes, cost several people their lives during its course and could ultimately only be settled through massive government intervention.
The connection to the rail network of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at the turn of the century noticeably softened the remoteness of the region. In 1912, the city council decided to rename Mt. Pleasant Harlan. George B. Turner became the first mayor. In the wake of the coal mining boom, which affected the city as well as the surrounding region, there was a rapid growth in the number of inhabitants. While this was below a thousand in 1910, it grew rapidly in the following decades (1920: 2647; 1930: 4327; 1940: 5122). Just like the other towns in the region, Harlan was the scene of bitter labor disputes , some of which were fought with massive violence and which went down in trade union history as Coal Wars . One industrial action that made headlines and nationwide attention was the so-called Harlan County War - a series of strikes that lasted from 1931 to 1938, in which authorities and state organs openly sided with the mine owners and which was suppressed, among other things, by the deployment of the National Guard . Another labor dispute broke out in 1973 at the nearby Brookside Mine in Harlan - an argument documented by filmmaker Barbara Kopple in her award-winning documentary Harlan County USA .
After the Second World War, the focus of urban development had shifted more and more towards the south. In 1980, a three-mile strip was incorporated into the urban area to enlarge the urban area. In response to a flood disaster in 1977, the end of the Clover Fork was placed underground - a measure that, among other things, was intended to create the conditions for the rehabilitation of the older parts of the city. In the course of the termination or relocation of coal mining, the city's population has fallen sharply. Urban and Countyverwaltung try the migration including through measures to stimulate Outdoor - tourism to counter.
Demographics
| growth of population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Residents | ± in% | |
| 1890 | 361 | - | |
| 1900 | 557 | 54.3% | |
| 1910 | 657 | 18% | |
| 1920 | 2547 | 287.7% | |
| 1930 | 4327 | 69.9% | |
| 1940 | 5122 | 18.4% | |
| 1950 | 4786 | -6.6% | |
| 1960 | 4177 | -12.7% | |
| 1970 | 3318 | -20.6% | |
| 1980 | 3024 | -8.9% | |
| 1990 | 2686 | -11.2% | |
| 2000 | 2081 | -22.5% | |
| 2010 | 1745 | -16.1% | |
The census of 2000, according to Harlan had at that time 2081 inhabitants and 926 households ; 550 families lived in the city. The population density was 459 people per square kilometer. The census provided the following information about the ethnic composition: 91% white, 7% African-American , just under 0.3% natives and between 0.8 and 09% Asians , Hispanics and people of multiethnic origin.
The 926 households consisted of the following: 24% children and young people under 18 years, 41.3% married couples , 14.4% single parents and 40.6% living alone . The average person size per household was 2.17, the average family size 2.91 persons. The average age was 42 years, the ratio of women and men 100 to 89.4.
The median income for a household in 2000 was $ 17,270 and that for a family was $ 29,135. The per capita income was $ 15,572. 23.8% of families and 32.4% of the total population lived below the poverty line . Those under 18 and those over 65 were particularly affected - with proportions of 40% and 20.6%.
More recent surveys - such as the 2010 census - confirm the trends listed. The city's population has decreased further. In 2010 it was 1745 inhabitants. Poverty, a lack of prospects and emigration are a problem for both Harlan and the surrounding region. Due, among other things, to the decline in coal mining, the Kentucky 05 congressional constituency is the poorest constituency in the United States.
Education and media
Both municipal school facilities and those of the surrounding county are present in Harlan. The urban Harlan Independent Schools have three levels: Elementary , Middle and High . The Harlan County High School was established in 2008 and summarizes the high schools James A. Cawood, Evarts and Cumberland together under one roof.
The Harlan Daily Enterprise is a daily newspaper based in Harlan and is published Monday through Friday . The on-site media offer is rounded off by local radio stations with a variety of music and contributions.
Culture and media reflection
The most well-known national cultural attraction of Harlan is the Harlan Boys Choir (nickname: "The Singing Sons of Appalachia"), a boys' choir maintained by the Harlan Independent District . The choir, which became part of the school curriculum in 1972, has performed in and outside the United States and was part of the musical program during the inauguration of President George Bush in 1989 . The annual (usually in June) Poke Sallet Festival is also a permanent fixture in the city .
Due to the past of the city and the surrounding region, Harlan was also repeatedly the scene or topic in films and pieces of music. The documentary film Harlan County, USA by Barbara Kopple , which deals with the 1970s miners' strike at the nearby Brookside mine, became famous. The TV drama Time of Justice (original title: Harlan County War ) with Holly Hunter from 1980 deals with this topic in fictional form. Harlan is also a sideline in the black series film Last Drive to Memphis (original title: Thunder Road ) with Robert Mitchum from 1958.
Interest in the city and the surrounding county has recently aroused the broadcast of the TV drama series Justified (2010-2015), the plot of which is largely located in Harlan and the surrounding county. In Harlan (or Harlan County) only the opening credits of the series were shot. However, in order to make the series background more authentic, members of the film crew repeatedly visited the site. The city's information center takes this connection into account with a showcase that displays various items related to the series.
The city and the surrounding area were thematized in different pieces of music: for example the Darrell Scott song You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive (which was also used in the Justified series ), Harlan Man by Steve Earle , Harlan County Line by Dave Alvin and Goin ' Back to Harlan, an Anna McGarrigle song that became more widely known in Emmylou Harris's version .
sons and daughters of the town
- Nick Lachey (* 1973), singer and actor
Web links
- Harlan, KY . Page with map and additional basic information (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harlan, Kentucky . weatherbase.com, accessed June 23, 2016
- ↑ a b c d e Thomas D. Clark (Ed.): The Kentucky Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2006, p. 408. Excerpts online at Google Books (English).
- ↑ Malcolm Gladwell : High Flyer. Why some people are successful - and others are not. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-492258-19-7 , excerpts online from Google Books
- ↑ see John W. Henever: Which Side Are You On? The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931-39. University of Illinois, Champaign 2002, ISBN 978-0-252070-77-8 ; excerpts online at Google Books (English)
- ↑ Bloody Harlan: The Enduring Strike . American Labor Crises, Barbara L. Pittman, September 14, 2012
- ↑ a b Harlan County USA , review archive from Frauenfilmfestival.eu, accessed on June 21, 2016
- ↑ Information based on the ten-year census data of the United States Census Bureau; available online from the United States Census Bureau - Census of Population and Housing . Retrieved July 24, 2016
- ↑ United States Census Bureau, 2000 census. Available as a PDF from the URL Kentucky: 2000. Summary Population and Housing Characteristics (PDF), accessed June 23, 2016
- ↑ United States Census Bureau, 2010 census. Available as PDF from the URL Kentucky: 2010. Summary Population and Housing Characteristics (PDF), accessed June 23, 2016
- ↑ Kentucky's Pals and Climate Change . Matthias Kob, Süddeutsche Zeitung, December 1, 2015
- ^ Website of the Harlan Daily Enterprise (Eng.); last accessed on July 23, 2016
- ^ Website of the Poke Sallet Festival (English), last accessed on June 23, 2016
- ↑ On the trail of "Justified": More buddies than gangsters . Denis Krick, Spiegel Online, April 26, 2013