Appalachian Community Histories – Upper Squabble, Perry County: The Road, the Creek, and the Ghost Town
Upper Squabble is one of those Perry County places whose history does not sit in one long chapter of a county book. It survives instead through maps, creek names, road references, school and church clues, land records, local newspapers, and family memory. That does not make the place less real. It makes it the kind of Appalachian community that has to be rebuilt from the record piece by piece.
The strongest starting point is the place-name itself. Gazetteer-style sources using federal place-name data identify Upper Squabble as a historical populated place in Perry County, with its location in the KY 41721 ZIP Code area and coordinates near 37.2884359 north and 83.5447019 west. The same source classifies it as a populated place rather than a stream, cemetery, or school, which means Upper Squabble should be treated as a community name connected to the upper part of the Squabble Creek country.
That record also fits the modern road evidence. In a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District Ten notice, KYTC described a closure on KY 2022, Squabble Creek Road, at milepoint 1.0, just north of the Owsley County line, and placed that work “in the Upper Squabble community.” That official wording is important because it shows that Upper Squabble was not only an old map label. The name still carried meaning in the modern road record.
On the Mistletoe Map
Upper Squabble belongs to the Mistletoe quadrangle country, a landscape of creek roads, branches, schools, churches, cemeteries, and small named places near the Perry, Owsley, Clay, and Breathitt borderlands. Historic topographic map listings identify the USGS Mistletoe, Kentucky, 7.5 minute quadrangle as a 1:24,000 scale map with a 1953 version and 1955 imprint, while the U.S. Geological Survey also published a 1978 geologic map of the Mistletoe quadrangle by Richard Peter Volckmann and Gerhard W. Leo.
That map setting matters because Upper Squabble was not an incorporated town with a street grid. It was a creek-community name. Nearby names such as Middle Squabble, Doorway, Mistletoe, Long Fork, Buckhorn, and Squabble Creek Road give the place its geography. To understand Upper Squabble, the researcher has to think like the old records thought. The creek was the road before the road was the road. The branch, school, church, cemetery, and post office often carried more meaning than a formal town boundary.
The Mistletoe quadrangle also reminds us that a place like Upper Squabble could be present in the lived geography of Perry County even when it left behind few direct newspaper stories under its exact name. People lived by creeks and roads. They married, bought land, paid taxes, attended school, buried kin, and gave directions by hollows. The name Upper Squabble is one part of that larger record.
Squabble Creek and the Upper Creek Country
Squabble Creek itself is the main historical thread. Federal habitat records describe Squabble Creek as a tributary of the Middle Fork Kentucky River in northwestern Perry County, entering near Buckhorn below Buckhorn Lake Dam. The critical habitat description for the Kentucky arrow darter identifies the Squabble Creek unit as running from the Long Fork confluence downstream to the Middle Fork Kentucky River. That helps place the upper creek area around Upper Squabble within a defined watershed rather than treating it as an isolated point on a map.
This creek geography also explains why Upper Squabble should be researched with related names. A search only for “Upper Squabble” will miss much of the story. A better trail includes Squabble Creek, Middle Squabble, Long Fork, Doorway, Mistletoe, Buckhorn, KY 2022, Squabble Creek Road, local cemeteries, and Perry County land records. That is not a weakness in the record. It is how small Appalachian places often appear.
The “Upper” in Upper Squabble likely worked in the practical local way, distinguishing the upper part of the creek country from middle or lower sections. Middle Squabble appears in map and road language as its own nearby community reference, and the presence of Middle Squabble School and Middle Squabble Church in mapping sources suggests a larger local naming system along the creek.
Squabble Creek Road
The road record is one of the clearest modern proofs that the name stayed alive. KY 2022 is identified by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet as Squabble Creek Road, and KYTC’s closure notice placed the Upper Squabble community near milepoint 1.0, close to the Owsley County line. That places Upper Squabble in the upper road and creek setting rather than at Buckhorn itself.
Road records matter in Appalachian community history because roads often preserve names after schools close, post offices disappear, and local stores vanish. A state road name may be one of the last official places where a community’s identity remains visible to outsiders. In the case of Upper Squabble, KY 2022 does that work. It connects the old creek name to the modern transportation map.
The same pattern appears throughout Perry County. Many communities are best traced through roads, branches, schools, cemeteries, and courthouse records rather than through incorporation papers. Upper Squabble belongs to that world. Its history is less about a town center and more about a corridor of settlement along water and road.
Families, Land, and the Courthouse Trail
The next step in Upper Squabble research belongs in the Perry County courthouse. The Perry County Clerk states that the office indexes and houses legal land records, marriage licenses, and notary bonds, with some records dating back to the late 1700s, while the oldest records are still kept in ledger form. The clerk’s office also provides eCCLIX access for registered users to view or print online county clerk documents.
Those records are essential because Upper Squabble’s deeper story is probably hidden in deeds, easements, road references, family transfers, cemetery parcels, school property, and boundary descriptions. Creek names often appear in land records long before they appear in newspapers. A deed might mention Squabble Creek, Long Fork, Spruce Pine, Mistletoe, Buckhorn, or a named neighbor. A marriage record might connect families who later appear in cemetery or obituary records. A court case might preserve a road dispute, estate division, or land boundary that places a family on the creek.
FamilySearch adds another important research path. Its catalog lists Perry County land records from 1821 to 1964 as microfilm of original records at the Perry County courthouse, and it also lists Perry County marriage records from 1821 to 1963. Those are not substitutes for a local courthouse search, but they show that the early record trail exists and can be pursued.
Newspapers and Local Memory
The Hazard Herald is one of the most important newspaper sources for Upper Squabble and the wider Squabble Creek country. Library of Congress records show The Hazard Herald as a Hazard, Kentucky newspaper beginning in 1911, and Perry County newspaper guides point researchers to Hazard Herald runs, related newspapers, and a subject and personal-name index for 1911 to 1920.
For Upper Squabble, the most useful newspaper search terms are not only “Upper Squabble.” They should also include Squabble Creek, Middle Squabble, Doorway, Mistletoe, Buckhorn, Long Fork, KY 2022, Squabble Creek Road, school notices, road work, church meetings, obituaries, flood reports, and cemetery references. Many small communities appear in newspapers through ordinary notices rather than feature stories.
The Perry County Public Library is another strong local source. Its genealogy room includes census records, microfilm, marriage and death records, cemetery guides, databases, newspapers, and books, and the library’s newer Perry County Newspaper and Yearbook Digital Archive makes many local newspapers and yearbooks keyword searchable.
Buckhorn Downstream
Upper Squabble should not be confused with Buckhorn, but Buckhorn helps explain the lower end of the same creek world. Kentucky Atlas places Buckhorn on Squabble Creek at the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, about 25 miles northwest of Hazard. It also identifies Buckhorn as the home of Witherspoon College, founded in 1903 by the Reverend Harvey S. Murdoch, and notes the later Buckhorn Presbyterian Church known as the Log Cathedral.
The City of Buckhorn’s history page gives more of that downstream institutional story. It describes Witherspoon College, the Buckhorn Presbyterian Church, the Geer Gymnasium, the later Buckhorn School, and the shift in 1957 when a K through 12 public school was established adjacent to Squabble Creek on land formerly owned by the college.
That matters for Upper Squabble because the upper and lower creek were connected by road, water, school, church, and family movement. Buckhorn became the better documented place, but the upper creek communities fed into the same wider landscape. A family from Upper Squabble might appear in a Buckhorn school record, a church connection, a newspaper notice, or a cemetery record without the words “Upper Squabble” appearing at all.
Water, Mining, and the Modern Creek Record
Squabble Creek also appears in environmental records. A U.S. Geological Survey water-quality assessment of the Kentucky River Basin states that Squabble Creek was affected by abandoned strip-mine drainage and discharges from two small sewage treatment plants. That kind of source does not tell the family history of Upper Squabble, but it helps explain the modern creek setting and the environmental history that shaped the watershed.
The creek remains important in present-day ecological records as well. Federal critical habitat material for the Kentucky arrow darter identifies Squabble Creek as part of the species’ habitat discussion in Perry County. This gives the creek a modern conservation record in addition to its older map, road, and community record.
The 2022 Eastern Kentucky flood added another painful chapter to the Squabble Creek record. The National Weather Service’s Jackson office documented the historic July 26 through July 30, 2022 flooding, including reports of Squabble Creek out of its banks, while U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documentation showed debris and damage in Squabble Creek near Buckhorn after the flood.
Why Upper Squabble Matters
Upper Squabble matters because it shows how Appalachian places can survive without leaving behind a simple town history. A map fixes the name. A road notice keeps it in official use. A creek gives it shape. Nearby schools, churches, cemeteries, and families give it life. The courthouse keeps the older evidence waiting in ledgers, deeds, and marriage books.
It is easy to call a place like Upper Squabble a ghost town and stop there. That is too simple. The better reading is that Upper Squabble was a creek community whose public record scattered across several kinds of sources. It lived in relation to Squabble Creek, KY 2022, Middle Squabble, Doorway, Mistletoe, Buckhorn, and the borderland between Perry and Owsley counties.
For researchers, Upper Squabble is a reminder to follow the creek before following the label. The name alone gives only a beginning. The real story waits in land records, road records, old maps, school notices, obituary lines, cemetery transcriptions, church histories, flood reports, and the memories of people who still know where Squabble Creek Road climbs toward the county line.
Sources & Further Reading
United States Geological Survey. “Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).” U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis
United States Geological Survey. “Topographic Maps.” U.S. Geological Survey. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/topographic-maps
TopoZone. “Upper Squabble (Historical) Topo Map in Perry County KY.” https://www.topozone.com/kentucky/perry-ky/city/upper-squabble-historical/
HometownLocator. “Upper Squabble (Historical) in Perry County KY.” https://kentucky.hometownlocator.com/maps/feature-map%2Cftc%2C3%2Cfid%2C2557246%2Cn%2Cupper%20squabble.cfm
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “Perry County Official Highway Map.” https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/SPRS%20Maps/Perry.pdf
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, District Ten. “Daytime Closures of KY 2022 in Perry County Begin Tuesday, Dec. 2.” https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/KYTC/bulletins/3fd097a
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, District Ten. “KY 2022, Squabble Creek Road, Upper Squabble Community Press Release.” https://transportation.ky.gov/DistrictTen/Pages/PressReleasePage.aspx?FilterField1=ID&FilterValue1=160
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “Perry County State Primary Road System.” https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/State%20Primary%20Road%20System%20Lists/Perry.pdf
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. “Traffic Station Counts, Perry County, Kentucky.” https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/Traffic%20Count%20Maps/perr.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “Geologic Map of the Mistletoe Quadrangle, Southeastern Kentucky.” USGS Publications Warehouse. https://www.usgs.gov/publications/geologic-map-mistletoe-quadrangle-southeastern-kentucky
Volckmann, Richard Peter, and Gerhard W. Leo. “Geologic Map of the Mistletoe Quadrangle, Southeastern Kentucky.” U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle Map GQ-1474, 1978. https://doi.org/10.3133/gq1474
Historic Aerials. “USGS 1:24000-Scale Quadrangle for Mistletoe, KY 1953.” https://www.historicaerials.com/topomap/Kentucky/Clay/24000/1955/5292422/USGS-1%3A24000-SCALE-QUADRANGLE-FOR-MISTLETOE%2C-KY-1953
MyTopo. “Mistletoe Kentucky US Topo Map.” https://mapstore.mytopo.com/products/ustopo_kentucky_mistletoe
MyTopo. “Classic USGS Mistletoe Kentucky 7.5 x 7.5 Topo Map.” https://mapstore.mytopo.com/products/historic_7-5×7-5_mistletoe_kentucky
Kentucky Geological Survey. “Groundwater Resources of Perry County, Kentucky: Topography.” University of Kentucky. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/water/library/gwatlas/Perry/Topography.htm
Kentucky Geological Survey. “Groundwater Resources of Perry County, Kentucky: Water Quality.” University of Kentucky. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/water/library/gwatlas/Perry/Waterquality.htm
Kentucky Geological Survey. “Perry County, Kentucky.” University of Kentucky, 2007. https://kgs.uky.edu/kgsweb/olops/pub/kgs/mc164_12.pdf
Perry County Clerk. “Records Center.” https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/
Perry County Clerk. “Online Land Records.” https://perry.countyclerk.us/records-center/online-land-records/
FamilySearch. “Land Records, 1821 to 1964, Perry County, Kentucky.” https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/190103
FamilySearch. “Deed Records, 1818 to 1901; General Index, 1818 to 1913, Perry County, Kentucky.” https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/256975
FamilySearch. “Marriage Records, 1821 to 1963, Perry County, Kentucky.” https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/189956
FamilySearch. “Record of Marriages in Perry County, Kentucky, for the Period of Years 1852 to 1862 Inclusive.” https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/573387
FamilySearch. “Births, Marriages, Deaths, 1852 to 1859, Perry County, Kentucky.” https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/223417
FamilySearch Wiki. “Perry County, Kentucky Genealogy.” https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Perry_County%2C_Kentucky_Genealogy
Kentucky Court of Justice. “Perry County.” https://kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Pages/Perry.aspx/1000
Kentucky Court of Justice. “Request Court Records.” https://kycourts.gov/Pages/Request-Court-Records.aspx
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Research Guides.” https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Research-Guides.aspx
Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “Requesting Records from the Archives.” https://kdla.ky.gov/Archives-and-Reference/Pages/Records-Requests.aspx
Perry County Public Library. “Services.” https://www.perrycountylibrary.org/home/services/
Perry County Public Library. “Resources.” https://perrycountypl.org/resources/
Library of Congress. “The Hazard Herald.” https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85052003/
Library of Congress. “The Hazard Herald, August 3, 1911.” https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85052003/1911-08-03/ed-1/
LDSGenealogy. “Perry County, Kentucky Newspapers and Obituaries.” https://ldsgenealogy.com/KY/Perry-County-Newspapers-and-Obituaries.htm
Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer. “Buckhorn, Kentucky.” https://www.kyatlas.com/ky-buckhorn.html
City of Buckhorn. “History.” https://cityofbuckhorn.org/history/
National Park Service. “Buckhorn Presbyterian Church and the Greer Gymnasium, National Register of Historic Places Nomination.” https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_KY/75000818.pdf
Berea College Special Collections and Archives. “Witherspoon College Buckhorn School Collection.” https://bereaarchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/584
Guerrant, Edward O. The Galax Gatherers: The Gospel Among the Highlanders. Louisville, KY: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1910. https://caleb-cangelosi-437x.squarespace.com/s/Moore-Walter-William-Introduction-to-EO-Guerrant-The-Galax-Gatherers.pdf
Crowe, Michael B. “E. O. Guerrant and Southern Appalachia, 1839–1916.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 88, no. 3, 1990. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23332655
Campbell, Olive Dame. Appalachian Travels: The Diary of Olive Dame Campbell. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012. https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813136446/appalachian-travels/
Raine, James Watt. The Land of Saddle-Bags: A Study of the Mountain People of Appalachia. New York: Council of Women for Home Missions, 1924. https://archive.org/details/landofsaddlebags00rain
MacClintock, S. S. “The Kentucky Mountains and Their Feuds.” American Journal of Sociology 7, no. 1, 1901. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/210993
McNeil, W. K., ed. Bibliography of Southern Appalachia. Boone, NC: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1977. https://archive.org/stream/BibliographyOfSouthernAppalachia/Bibliography%20of%20Southern%20Appalachia_djvu.txt
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. “Threatened Species Status for Kentucky Arrow Darter.” Federal Register, October 8, 2015. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/10/08/2015-25278/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-threatened-species-status-for-kentucky-arrow-darter
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. “Designation of Critical Habitat for Kentucky Arrow Darter.” Federal Register, October 5, 2016. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/10/05/2016-23539/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-designation-of-critical-habitat-for-kentucky-arrow
United States Fish and Wildlife Service. “Kentucky Arrow Darter (Etheostoma spilotum) Status Review 2022.” https://www.fws.gov/node/5104616
United States Geological Survey. Water-Quality Assessment of the Kentucky River Basin, Kentucky: Distribution of Metals and Other Trace Elements. Water-Supply Paper 2351-B. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/2351b/report.pdf
Bradfield, Arthur D. Summary of Biological Investigations Relating to Surface-Water Quality in the Kentucky River Basin, Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 90-4051. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1990/4051/report.pdf
Haag, Kim H., and others. Water-Quality Assessment of the Kentucky River Basin, Kentucky: Analysis of Available Surface-Water-Quality Data Through 1986. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 95-4163. https://pubs.usgs.gov/wri/1995/4163/report.pdf
Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. “Special Waters.” https://eec.ky.gov/Environmental-Protection/Water/Regs/Pages/SpecialH2O.aspx
National Weather Service Jackson, Kentucky. “Historic July 26th to July 30th, 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flooding.” https://www.weather.gov/jkl/July2022Flooding
National Weather Service. July 2022 Significant River and Flash Flood in Southeastern Kentucky. https://www.weather.gov/media/publications/assessments/July_2022_Significant_River_Flash_Flood_SE_KY.pdf
United States Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District. “Debris and Damage Left Behind from Eastern KY Flood.” DVIDS, August 19, 2022. https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7378818/debris-and-damage-left-behind-eastern-ky-flood
Lexington Herald-Leader. “Eastern Kentucky School Ravaged by 2022 Flood Likely Won’t Reopen Until 2025.” September 24, 2023. https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article279565279.html
University of Kentucky. “Perry County Students Join UK Water Monitoring Research Team.” January 9, 2026. https://uknow.uky.edu/research/perry-county-students-join-uk-water-monitoring-research-team
Author Note: Upper Squabble is the kind of place that reminds me how much Appalachian history survives in creeks, road names, courthouse ledgers, and old maps. I hope this piece encourages readers to treat small community names as real history, even when the record has to be rebuilt one source at a time.