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McCreary County Museum, Stearns, KY

Photo: Kybluegrass, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Museums

McCreary County Museum

Local history museum in Stearns, Kentucky, set inside a former coal and lumber firm's office building.

66 Henderson St, Stearns, KY 42647 · Stearns, KY

About McCreary County Museum

The museum occupies a 1907 office building that once served as the regional headquarters of a coal and lumber company. Its holdings cover local history from early Indigenous and pioneer periods through the industrial boom, along with exhibits on daily life in the county and on moonshine. The museum overlooks the town, where the Big South Fork Scenic Railway also runs.

  • #local history
  • #coal industry
  • #lumber industry
  • #Appalachian culture
  • #moonshine

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What's around here?

The closest stops to McCreary County Museum, ordered by straight-line distance.

  • Sightseeing

    Big South Fork Scenic Railway

    $25–$50

    A vintage tourist train in Appalachian Kentucky that runs round trips to Blue Heron through the Big South Fork area.

    Right next doorSwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sightseeing

    Blue Heron

    No admission fee

    A rebuilt outdoor museum of an abandoned 1937-1962 coal mining town within Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

    4.3 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Outdoor Adventure

    Cumberland Falls State Resort Park

    No admission fee

    See the 68-foot Cumberland Falls pour a 125-foot-wide curtain of water and, on clear full-moon nights, a rare moonbow.

    13 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors

  • Eat & Drink
    Quirky Fun

    Harland Sanders Café and Museum

    No admission fee

    Eat in Colonel Sanders' restored 1940s dining room and see the kitchen where his fried chicken recipe took shape.

    28 mi awaySwitch it up: Eat & Drink

  • Sightseeing
    History Buff

    Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument

    No admission fee

    Watch a short film on the January 1862 Union victory, then follow a 10-stop driving tour and a ravine trail across the Kentucky battlefield.

    29 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sports & Outdoors
    History Buff

    Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park

    Check prices

    Hike sections of the Wilderness Road and Boone's Trace, see a reproduction 1939 grist mill and walk through a pioneer village museum.

    36 mi awaySwitch it up: Sports & Outdoors

Near McCreary County Museum

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