Kentucky History Drive

History is all around us.

Pioneers, Native nations, long hunters, soldiers and distillers. Explore the stories that made Kentucky, on a living map you can travel through time.

Timeline story

Montgomery County · Prehistoric · 1790 – 1845

Mount Sterling / Little Mountain Town

Explorers out of Boonesborough called a tree-covered Adena burial mound "the Little Mountain." Scotsman Hugh Forbes began selling lots beside it around 1790; in 1792 the Kentucky Assembly chartered the town on 640 acres from Forbes, Enoch Smith, John Judy, and Samuel Spurgin.

AI illustration of Hugh Forbes, Scottish-born founder of Mount Sterling, about 1790
Hugh Forbes AI illustration · Kentucky History Drive; no known likeness exists

Forbes meant Mount Stirling (for Stirling, Scotland, plus the mound); the misspelled "Sterling" stuck. The mound—once about 25 feet high at Queen and Locust—was leveled in 1845, and Mount Sterling became Montgomery County's seat.

Learn more

Cite this story

Published . Last revised .

Chicago

Snowden, Shannon. "Mount Sterling / Little Mountain Town." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 12, 2026. Last revised September 15, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/mount-sterling-little-mountain-town/.

MLA

Snowden, Shannon. "Mount Sterling / Little Mountain Town." Kentucky History Drive, published 12 Sept. 2026, last revised 15 Sept. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/mount-sterling-little-mountain-town/.

Report a correction

Open this story on the timeline Open on the map