Qualla: Ashland, Kentucky

Ashland, Kentucky: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MissvainOriginal author: User:Nyttend, CC0. Naomi Judd raised Wynonna and Ashley in a series of small houses around Boyd County, working as a nurse and singing harmonies that would one day fill stadiums. Billy Ray Cyrus grew up in nearby Flatwoods, just across the city line, before "Achy Breaky Heart" made him famous. Both stories started in Ashland - a working-class river town founded in 1786 as Poage's Landing, renamed Ashland in 1854 and formally incorporated in 1856, and shaped ever since by the steel mills, the oil refineries, and the railroads that converge at the confluence of the Big Sandy and the Ohio.

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: MissvainOriginal author: User:Nyttend | CC0

Ashland, Kentucky: Two Rivers and a Stack

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Youngamerican, CC BY-SA 3.0. Ashland sits where the Big Sandy River, the border between Kentucky and West Virginia, empties into the Ohio. That junction is why the town exists. Riverboats stopped here, freight moved here, and in the late nineteenth century industry showed up to take advantage of cheap coal, ...

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: Youngamerican | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ashland, Kentucky: The Judds and the Cyruses

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Crunchy_Numbers (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. Music came out of Ashland the way coal came out of the surrounding hollows - constantly, naturally, in volume. Naomi Judd worked as a nurse at the local hospital while raising Wynonna and Ashley. Wynonna and her mother became The Judds, dominating country music in the 1980s befor...

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: Crunchy_Numbers (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ashland, Kentucky: Cardinal Through Town

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stigeweard, CC BY-SA 3.0. Amtrak's Cardinal stops in Ashland three times a week in each direction, on its long run between Chicago and New York City. Westbound trains pull in around 10 PM, eastbound around 6:30 AM, with delays common enough that locals build flexibility into their travel plans. The route ...

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: Stigeweard | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ashland, Kentucky: Summer Motion

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Corey Graese, CC BY-SA 4.0. Every year over the Fourth of July weekend, Ashland holds Summer Motion - a festival that has grown into one of the largest free events in the region. Concerts run nightly, with country, rock, and Christian artists working through the lineup. An air show fills the sky over the Oh...

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: Corey Graese | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ashland, Kentucky: Wet and Dry

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wvfunnyman, CC BY-SA 3.0. Kentucky's complicated alcohol laws come into clear focus in Ashland. The city itself is "wet," meaning full retail liquor sales are permitted. Boyd County around it is dry, with one exception: restaurants seating at least 100 people may sell drinks. Nearby Russell, across in Gre...

Read more: Ashland, Kentucky on Qualla

Image: Wvfunnyman | CC BY-SA 3.0