Spurlins Hollow and Spurlins Creek, Kentucky
Besides Spurlington, GNIS lists two Kentucky natural features named in the possessive form 'Spurlins': Spurlins Hollow, a valley in Cumberland County, and Spurlins Creek, a stream in Muhlenberg County recorded by the place-name scholar Robert M. Rennick.
Sourcing: strong 4 government · 2 reference
Along with the community of Spurlington in Taylor County, GNIS lists two natural features whose possessive form ("Spurlins") suggests a Spurlin family owned or lived on the land.[1][2][3]
Spurlins Hollow (Cumberland County)
Spurlins Hollow is a valley in Cumberland County in south-central Kentucky, near the Tennessee border. It carries GNIS feature ID 504190. GNIS records its mouth at about 36.716° N, 85.261° W and its head (source) at about 36.702° N, 85.268° W.[1][4] The name is shown on the USGS Frogue quadrangle and was entered in GNIS on 20 September 1979, with a citation to the survey's 1:24,000-scale topographic maps.[4]
Spurlins Creek (Muhlenberg County)
Spurlins Creek is a stream in Muhlenberg County in western Kentucky's coalfield region. It carries GNIS feature ID 2743035, with recorded points at about 37.193° N, 87.270° W and 37.204° N, 87.216° W.[2] Its primary map is the USGS Graham quadrangle.[5]
The creek was added to GNIS much later than Kentucky's other names, on 5 December 2012. Its source is the field research of the Kentucky place-name researcher Robert M. Rennick. GNIS describes this as about 40 years of work annotated on USGS topographic maps dating from 1938 to 1973, and notes that the same data was used in Rennick's published works.[5]
Context
The gazetteer records give only names, classes, map sheets and locations. No local history explaining either name was found. A Spurlin landholder is the likely origin but remains unverified.[1][2]
The Taylor County community of Spurlington has a documented origin, but in a different family. Rennick and other local sources trace its name to the Spurling family, whose John Spurling Sr. was the first postmaster in 1880.[3][6] Spurling and Spurlin are closely related spellings, so a "Spurlin"-looking place name is not always evidence of a Spurlin family.
See also
- Spurlington, Kentucky · Places mixed
Spurlington is a small rural community in Taylor County, Kentucky, northeast of Campbellsville. It was a railroad station with a post office from 1880 to 1958, and it is named for the Spurling family, whose John Spurling Sr. was its first postmaster. - Places named Spurlin · Places strong
Overview of communities, landforms, streams, crossings, cemeteries and civic sites in the United States that carry the Spurlin (or closely related Spurling) name, with pointers to Spurlin historical markers and federal land records.
References
- ↑ ↑ ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 5 (Landforms), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
- ↑ ↑ ↑ USGS National Map Gazetteer (GNIS) — geonames MapServer layer 6 (Streams (Mouth)), query for names containing 'Spurlin' — Official federal names data: feature ID, class, state, county, coordinates Government
- ↑ ↑ Spurlington, Kentucky — Kentucky Atlas & Gazetteer (kyatlas.com) Reference
- ↑ ↑ Spurlins Hollow (Feature ID 504190) — USGS Geographic Names Information System — Valley, Cumberland County; primary map "Frogue"; entered 20 September 1979 Government
- ↑ ↑ Spurlins Creek (Feature ID 2743035) — USGS Geographic Names Information System — Stream, Muhlenberg County; primary map "Graham"; entered 5 December 2012; citation to Robert M. Rennick's field research Government
- ↑ Robert M. Rennick, "Place Names Beginning with the Letter S" — Robert M. Rennick Manuscript Collection, Morehead State University — Draft Spurlington entry; PDF read via Internet Archive snapshot, 2024-11-15 Reference
Last reviewed 2026-09-24.