Корбин, Кентукки: История и современность города

Corbin is a home rule class city in Whitley, Knox and Laurel counties in the southeastern portion of the U. S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,856. Corbin is on Interstate 75 and US Route 25W, about halfway between Knoxville, Tennessee, and Lexington.

The first settlement in the Corbin area was known as Lynn Camp Station. The first post office was called Cummins, for community founder Nelson Cummins. It was discovered in 1885 that both Cummins and Lynn Camp were already in use as names for Kentucky post offices, and postmaster James Eaton was asked to select another name. He chose Corbin for the Rev. James Corbin Floyd, a local minister. The town was incorporated under that name in 1905. Corbin has a troubled racial past, including a race riot in late October 1919 in which a white mob forced nearly all the town's 200 black residents onto a freight train out of town and a sundown town policy until the late 20th century. The event is the subject of a 1991 documentary, Trouble Behind. In October 2019, city leaders marked the riot's centennial with a proclamation acknowledging the riot and former sundown town policy. For most of its history, the urbanized areas of Corbin in Laurel County were not incorporated into the city limits due to a state law prohibiting cities from being in more than two counties. However, a 2021 change to state law allowed cities to voluntarily annex property in a third county if the city already provides public infrastructure to that property. In March 2022, the Corbin City Commission approved an annexation request for a property in Laurel County.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Corbin has a total area of , with only a tiny fraction of , or 0.56%, consisting of water. Corbin lies in the Cumberland Plateau region of Appalachia in southeastern Kentucky, along Interstate 75 and U. S. Route 25W. I 75 provides access to the city from exit 25, leading north 89 mile (143 km) to Lexington and south 86 mile (138 km) to Knoxville, Tennessee. U. S. 25W runs through the center of town, leading north 14 mile (23 km) to London (via U. S. Route 25) and south 21 mile (34 km) to Williamsburg. The Pine Mountain Overthrust Fault, a geologic fault system several miles to the east, produces occasional tremors, the most recent in 2008.

Corbin exhibits a humid subtropical climate, typical of southeastern Kentucky. The region experiences four distinct seasons. Winters are cool to cold, with mild periods. Summers are generally hot and humid, with variable spring and fall seasons. Precipitation is common year round but more prevalent in the summer months—the surrounding mountains somewhat moderate Corbin's climate.

Corbin is near the center of the Corbin, Kentucky micropolitan area, whose current boundaries were established in 2023 by the U. S. Office of Management and Budget in coordination with the United States Census Bureau. Previously, the London micropolitan area had consisted solely of Laurel County, while the Whitley County portion of Corbin was the principal city of its own micropolitan area that consisted solely of that county. Both entities were in turn the components of a statistical entity officially known as the "Corbin–London, KY Combined Statistical Area". The CSA had a combined population of 94,486 at the 2010 census. The Knox County portion of Corbin was outside the former Corbin–London statistical area but is now included in the redefined London micropolitan area. As of the 2010 census (Though the play is set in the 1940s, the festival itself only dates to 1952.) NIBROC often features free performances by popular musical acts such as 38 Special, Foghat, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kansas, The Marshall Tucker Band, Percy Sledge, Rick Springfield, Starship, Styx and The Turtles. In episode 10 of the American reality documentary television series On the Road with Austin & Santino on Lifetime entitled "We Love a Parade", the fashion designers visit Corbin to custom design a dress for a local woman participating in the NIBROC parade. Despite being in dry counties (Knox and Whitley), the city of Corbin allows full retail alcohol sales, following a successful local option election on February 14, 2012. The city had previously voted in 2004 to allow sales of alcohol by the drink in larger restaurants. Corbin has an association with Kentucky Fried Chicken, having been the location of the chain's first restaurant, opened in 1930. Corbin appears in the animated cartoon South Parks episode "Medicinal Fried Chicken", wherein Eric Cartman visits the town to meet with Harland Sanders. Corbin is depicted as located in a lush rain forest in a parody of the 1983 film Scarface, wherein Tony Montana and Omar Suarez visit Bolivia to meet with a drug kingpin.

Corbin is governed by a mayor and city commission and a city manager who runs the departments' day to day operations. Currently, Marlon Sams is the city manager. Since it does not have a mayor/alderman form of government, Corbin is considered home rule class under Kentucky's city classification system that took effect in 2015. Susie Razmus is the current mayor. Trent Knuckles, David Grigsby Hart, Ed Tye, and Andrew Pennington are its four current commissioners. Corbin is one of the few cities in Kentucky that lie in two counties—Whitley and Knox. Many built up areas in neighboring Laurel County have a Corbin postal address but lie outside the city limits. This arrangement has created some problems with taxes and census records. The city receives a portion of the occupational tax collected in Whitley County. However, Knox County has refused to give Corbin any tax collected there. On March 10, 2008, the City Commission voted to file a lawsuit against Knox County to receive a portion of the tax collected within city limits. On May 23, 2014, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that the "Stivers amendment", passed as part of KY HB 499 "Tax Amnesty" legislation in 2012, did not violate the state's constitution. The measure essentially canceled the effect of court rulings that would have enabled Corbin to keep all the revenue from the tax generated inside the city limits. Corbin's mayor, Willard McBurney, vowed to carry the fight to the state Supreme Court. Corbin is in Kentucky's 5th congressional district.

Corbin straddles Interstate 75 and U. S. Highway 25 (which splits into US 25E and US 25W in North Corbin). The town is served by the CSX rail line.

Cumberland Falls State Resort Park, the site of a waterfall, one of the few in the Western Hemisphere that regularly produces a moonbow, is 19 mile (31 km) to the southwest. Harland Sanders Café and Museum, the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken (though not sold as the KFC/Kentucky Fried Chicken brand at the time), is located in North Corbin. The restaurant and accompanying museum are popular with tour groups traveling along Interstate 75. The Arena at the Southeastern Kentucky Ag and Expo Complex, a multi purpose venue on top of a hill across from the Baptist Regional Medical Center, sits above the Corbin Center. This multi purpose education center also houses the Corbin Tourism office. Nearby Laurel River Lake, created by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1974, is a popular recreational site for boating, fishing, water skiing, and scuba diving. Cumberland Gap and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park are about 50 mile (80 km) south of Corbin on U. S. Highway 25E at the Tennessee border.