Appalachian Community Histories – Cedarville, Pike County: The Russell Fork Community That Became Part of Elkhorn City
Cedarville was never one of the large names in Pike County history. It did not become a county seat, a famous coal town, or a place marked by a great public monument. Its history is quieter than that. It sits in the record as a small community along the Russell Fork, near Elkhorn City, where river, road, railroad, and mountain terrain shaped daily life.
That quietness is part of what makes Cedarville worth remembering. Many Appalachian places were not built around courthouses or large commercial streets. Some were remembered through post offices, family names, stores, bridges, churches, school routes, census records, maps, and the bends of a creek or river. Cedarville belongs to that kind of history.
The modern researcher meets Cedarville first as a former city in Pike County. Federal records identify it by name, county, and code. Maps place it near the Russell Fork and close to Elkhorn City. Local memory adds something more personal, a story of a cedar tree near the river that gave the place its name.
Pike County and the River Country
Pike County was formed in the early nineteenth century from Floyd County and named for Zebulon M. Pike. It lies at Kentucky’s eastern edge, where Virginia and West Virginia press close against the mountains. The county’s water runs through the Big Sandy system, with the Levisa Fork and Tug Fork shaping much of its settlement and transportation history.
Cedarville’s story belongs to the eastern side of that world. The Russell Fork comes out of the mountains and passes through the country around Breaks Interstate Park and Elkhorn City before joining the Levisa Fork. In this part of Pike County, the river was more than scenery. It was a boundary, a travel route, a danger in flood season, and a marker by which people understood where they lived.
The steep land kept communities close to water and roads. Homes, stores, rail lines, and later highways followed the usable ground. That pattern explains why a small place like Cedarville could matter locally even when it appeared only briefly in official municipal history.
A Name from a Cedar Tree
One of the best direct historical leads for Cedarville comes from Robert M. Rennick’s Pike County place-name work. Rennick spent decades collecting Kentucky community names, post office histories, and local explanations from written records and oral sources. His Pike County notes preserve the tradition that Cedarville was named for a cedar tree at the edge of the river.
That explanation reportedly came through Thurman Elswick. It has the plain sound of many Appalachian place-name stories. A tree, a bend, a family, a store, a school, or a post office often gave a place the name that later appeared on maps. Cedarville’s name did not need a founder’s monument to survive. A cedar tree beside the water was enough.
Rennick’s notes also point to Cedarville’s incorporation around 1963. That detail should be checked against Kentucky Secretary of State city records and Pike County Clerk records for the final legal paperwork, but the date fits the federal record of Cedarville as a former incorporated place.
The Store, the Post Office, and the Older Community
Cedarville almost certainly had a community identity before it became an incorporated city. One important lead is a reported 1908 photograph of the Cedarville Drug Store and Post Office. Because that image appears to circulate through social media rather than through a fully cataloged public archive, it should be treated carefully. Still, the lead is valuable.
A drug store and post office would have meant more than business. In a small Appalachian community, such a place was often where people collected mail, heard news, bought medicine, met neighbors, and connected their valley to the wider county. If the 1908 identification is correct, Cedarville’s name was in everyday use long before its short formal municipal life.
This is the kind of source that local historians should try to trace. The best next step would be to identify the original photograph owner, the caption history, and any connection to Pike County Historical Society files, family collections, or local library holdings. Even one confirmed photograph could add texture to a place that otherwise survives mostly in maps and government records.
Cedarville Becomes a City
By the mid twentieth century, Cedarville had entered the official record as a city in Pike County. The U.S. Census Bureau later listed it as “Cedarville city (Pike-195)” with the place code 13798. Census and gazetteer materials describe it as a very small incorporated place. By 2000, Cedarville had only 52 residents.
Those numbers tell an important story. Cedarville was a city in legal form, but in size and daily life it remained a very small Appalachian community. It was the kind of place where municipal status did not mean urban life. It meant local identity, defined boundaries, and a place name recognized by state and federal record keepers.
The 2000 census snapshot shows Cedarville near the end of its separate life. Its population was small enough that a few households represented a large share of the whole city. In a county of hollows, forks, and river towns, that was not unusual. Many communities were deeply known by residents and almost invisible to outsiders.
Cedarville on the Map
USGS records identify Cedarville as a populated place. Its official place-name entry gives researchers a stable way to locate it and distinguish it from other communities with the same or similar names. The Elkhorn City quadrangle is especially important for Cedarville research, since it places the community within the larger landscape of Elkhorn City, the Russell Fork, nearby roads, and the mountains around the Breaks.
Historical topographic maps are often some of the best sources for places like Cedarville. They show what written histories sometimes overlook. A name on a map proves that surveyors and mapmakers recognized the community at a particular time. Comparing older Elkhorn City quadrangles with more recent USGS maps can show how roads, settlement patterns, and labels changed over time.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Pike County highway maps add another layer. They place Cedarville within the county road network and show its relationship to nearby communities such as Elkhorn City, Big Branch, Belcher, Beaver Bottom, Ashcamp, Marrowbone, and Dunleary. On paper, Cedarville appears as one name among many. On the ground, each name marks a community with its own memories.
Elkhorn City and the Railroad World
Cedarville’s later history cannot be separated from Elkhorn City. The two places sit close together in the same river country. Elkhorn City became a more prominent railroad and commercial center, especially as rail lines carried coal, timber, goods, and passengers through the eastern Kentucky mountains.
The Kentucky historical marker for Elkhorn City’s railroads emphasizes the importance of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad. That transportation history mattered to surrounding places as well. A small community near Elkhorn City could share in the movement of goods, labor, and families without becoming the main name on the railroad map.
For Cedarville, Elkhorn City was not simply a neighbor. It was the nearby center of gravity. Over time, that closeness helped shape Cedarville’s final municipal chapter.
The Russell Fork and Flood Memory
Cedarville’s location near the Russell Fork gives the community an environmental history as well as a civic one. Today the USGS maintains a monitoring location called Russell Fork at Cedarville, Kentucky. That station records water data for the river, continuing the long relationship between the place and the stream beside it.
The Russell Fork is one of the most dramatic rivers in eastern Kentucky. Upstream, it cuts through the Breaks, where river and mountain meet in steep, dangerous country. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife describes the Russell Fork as a stream that carved through Pine Mountain and helped form Breaks Canyon. Below that rugged section, the river continues toward Elkhorn City and the Levisa Fork.
Flooding is part of that story. The April 1977 flood devastated communities across southeastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, southern West Virginia, and nearby areas. Major damage occurred along the Tug Fork, Levisa Fork, and Russell Fork. The National Weather Service later described the flood as one of the great disasters in the Big Sandy and Cumberland drainages. USGS reports recorded heavy rains, record flooding, lives lost, and enormous property damage across the Appalachian region.
Cedarville’s own flood story needs more local documentation, but its location near the Russell Fork means it belongs within that wider river memory. In eastern Kentucky, water made settlement possible and sometimes made it fragile.
The 2009 Merger
The clearest official ending to Cedarville’s separate municipal history comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Geographic Boundary Change Notes. The Census Bureau records that Cedarville city in Pike County merged into Elkhorn City city, effective December 14, 2009. In federal geography, Cedarville did not simply fade away. It changed status.
That merger closed a short but documented municipal chapter. Cedarville remained a place people knew, but it no longer stood as a separate incorporated city. It became part of Elkhorn City, the larger neighbor with which it had long shared geography, roads, river life, and local history.
For many small communities, this is how official history changes. A place name may remain in memory, on maps, in family stories, and in old records long after its government status changes. Cedarville is a good example. Its city government disappeared into Elkhorn City, but the name still points to a particular bend of Pike County history.
Why Cedarville Matters
Cedarville matters because Appalachian history is not only the history of large coal companies, county seats, battles, famous feuds, or political figures. It is also the history of small places that held together family life, river life, and local identity.
The records are scattered. A Census Bureau line gives the merger date. A GNIS entry fixes the name on the map. A USGS stream station ties the place to the Russell Fork. A topographic quadrangle shows its position in the hills. Rennick’s place-name card preserves the cedar tree story. A possible photograph of a drug store and post office hints at a community center more than a century ago.
Together, these sources give Cedarville a shape. It was a small place by the Russell Fork, near Elkhorn City, remembered in official geography and local tradition. Its history is modest, but modest does not mean unimportant. In Appalachia, many places have lived this way, partly in records and partly in memory, waiting for someone to gather the fragments and give the name back its story.
Sources & Further Reading
U.S. Census Bureau. “Geographic Boundary Change Notes.” Census.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/technical-documentation/boundary-change-notes.html
U.S. Census Bureau. “Geographic Boundary Change Notes: Kentucky, 2000 to 2010.” Census.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/reference/bndrychange/st21_ky_gcn_2000_2010.txt
U.S. Census Bureau. Kentucky: 2000, Population and Housing Unit Counts. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2003. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2003/dec/phc-3-19.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. Kentucky: 2000, Summary Population and Housing Characteristics. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2002. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/2002/dec/phc-1-19.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau. “Gazetteer Files: Census 2000.” Census.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/2000/geo/gazetter-file.html
U.S. Geological Survey. “Geographic Names Information System.” USGS.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.usgs.gov/tools/geographic-names-information-system-gnis
U.S. Geological Survey. “Monitoring Location 03209410, Russell Fork at Cedarville, KY.” Water Data for the Nation. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/03209410/
U.S. Geological Survey. “US Topo 7.5-Minute Map for Elkhorn City, KY-VA.” The National Map, 2013. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/USTopo/PDF/KY/KY_Elkhorn_City_20130322_TM_geo.pdf
U.S. Geological Survey. “US Topo 7.5-Minute Map for Elkhorn City, KY-VA.” The National Map, 2016. https://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Maps/USTopo/PDF/KY/KY_Elkhorn_City_20160407_TM_geo.pdf
U.S. Geological Survey. “ELKHORN CITY, KY-VA Historical Map GeoPDF, 7.5 x 7.5 Grid, 24000-Scale, 1954.” USGS Store. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://store.usgs.gov/product/863914
Alvord, Donald Clayton, and Ralph L. Miller. Geologic Map of the Elkhorn City Quadrangle, Kentucky-Virginia and Part of the Harman Quadrangle, Pike County, Kentucky. U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Quadrangle 951. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1972. https://doi.org/10.3133/gq951
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Kentucky Cities.” Kentucky Land Office. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://sos.ky.gov/land/cities/Pages/default.aspx
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Kentucky Land Office.” Accessed June 16, 2026. https://sos.ky.gov/land/Pages/default.aspx
Kentucky Secretary of State. “Non-Military Registers and Land Records.” Kentucky Land Office. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://sos.ky.gov/land/non-military/Pages/default.aspx
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Pike County, Kentucky, 2005 County Road Series Map. Frankfort: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, approved March 20, 2006. https://transportation.ky.gov/Planning/Maps/Pike_cmap.pdf
Kentucky.gov. “Pike County.” Kentucky Local Profile. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://kentucky.gov/government/Pages/LocalProfile.aspx?Title=Pike+County
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Russell Fork.” Blue Water Trails. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://fw.ky.gov/Education/Pages/Russell-Fork.aspx
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “Russell Fork.” Fishing in Neighborhoods and River Access. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Russell_Fork.aspx
Rennick, Robert M. “Pike County – Place Names.” Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, Morehead State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/rennick_ms_collection/125
Rennick, Robert M. Place Names of Pike County, Kentucky. Lake Grove, OR: The Depot, 1991. https://books.google.com/books/about/Place_Names_of_Pike_County_Kentucky.html?id=GClvAAAACAAJ
Pike County Historical Society. Sesquicentennial of Pike County, Kentucky, 1822-1972: A Compilation of Articles. Pikeville, KY: Pike County Historical Society, 1972. https://books.google.com/books/about/Sesquicentennial_of_Pike_County_Kentucky.html?id=C_kTAAAAYAAJ
Pike County Historical Society. 150 Years: Pike County, Kentucky, 1822-1972. Pikeville, KY: Pike County Historical Society, 1987. https://archive.org/details/150yearspikecoun01pike
Pike County Historical Society. “The Birth of Pike County, KY.” Pike County Historical Society. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://pikecountykyhistoricalsociety.com/the-birth-of-pike-county-ky/
Pike County Historical Society. “Pikeville, Pike County Flood of 1977.” Pike County Historical Society. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://pikecountykyhistoricalsociety.com/pikeville-pike-county-flood-of-1977/
Runner, Gerald S., and Edwin H. Chin. Flood of April 1977 in the Appalachian Region of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1098. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1980. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1098
Runner, Gerald S. Flood of April 1977, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-14. Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey, 1978. https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr7814
National Weather Service, Jackson, Kentucky. “The East Kentucky Flood of April 1977.” Weather.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.weather.gov/jkl/1977flood
NOAA National Water Prediction Service. “Russell Fork near Elkhorn City.” Water.noaa.gov. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/elkk2
FamilySearch. “Pike County, Kentucky Genealogy.” FamilySearch Research Wiki. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Pike_County%2C_Kentucky_Genealogy
Kentucky Geological Survey. “KGS Interactive Map Services.” University of Kentucky. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://kygs.uky.edu/maps/
Pike County Property Valuation Administrator. “Real Property.” Pike County PVA. Accessed June 16, 2026. https://pikekypva.com/real-property/
Author Note: Cedarville’s story is a reminder that small Appalachian places often survive in fragments, through maps, census notes, river gauges, and local memory. This article gathers those scattered records so a former Pike County city is not lost inside a boundary change.