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Middlesboro may look like a typical town, full of quaint shops and beautiful parks, but that wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s scientists determined that this oddly circular mountain town was formed by a meteor.
Surrounded by mountains, Middlesboro was founded in 1886, taking advantage of coal and iron mining opportunities. The meteor that formed the crater less than 300 million years ago was 1,500 feet across. The impact left its mark with a basin three miles in diameter and slopes upward of 1,900 feet.
It is believed that the center of the meteor hit on North 30th St.
– Rebecca Hastings, The 100 Companies