MIDDLESBORO

officially Middlesborough city, Bell county, southeastern Kentucky, U.S. It lies in a valley at the western end of the Cumberland Gap near where the borders of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia meet. Despite its location on the old Wilderness Road through a natural pass in the mountains, the site was not settled until 1889. It was developed by English investors as an iron and steel centre and named after Middlesbrough (now Teesside), Yorkshire, Eng. Their company went bankrupt, however, when the London bank Baring Brothers and Company failed in 1893. The city eventually recovered as a centre for the important eastern Kentucky coalfields. Middlesboro is also a trade centre for tobacco and cattle. Industries include tanning, food processing, and the manufacture of plastic pipe, elastic webbing, and mobile homes. It is a tourist gateway to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park to the east. Kentucky Ridge State Forest is north, and Fern Lake, with a wild-game sanctuary, is south. Inc. 1890. Pop. (1990) 11,328.