HAZARD

city, seat of Perry county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S., on the North Fork of the Kentucky River in the Cumberland foothills just east of Daniel Boone National Forest (Redbird Purchase Unit), 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Lexington. Founded in 1821, it was named to honour the American naval hero Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Growth was retarded by the long blood feud between the French and Eversole families; the worst gun battle occurred in Hazard (1888) when 12 men were killed. The arrival of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1912 boosted development of local resources (coal, oil, gas, timber). Hazard annexed the adjacent community of Lothair in 1965. Hazard Community College opened in 1968. Inc. town, 1832; city, 1884. Pop. (1990) 5,416.