These Have Been Named the Ugliest Town in Indiana and Kentucky

One website recently listed the ugliest town in each state. Do you think you know what towns were named the ugliest in Indiana and Kentucky?

Here in Indiana and Kentucky, we have a lot of beautiful scenery. We have quite a few larger lakes that you could just admire for hours, beautiful state parks, and so many cute small towns. When taking all of the cities and towns that we have in Indiana and Kentucky, you might first think about some of the more fun or beautiful towns that you have visited. However, for this article's sake, we will go down a different route.

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The website Our Health Depot recently compiled a list of the ugliest town in each of the fifty states. What constitutes as an "ugly town"? According to Our Health Depot, lack of maintenance or just poor design choices plays a key role. However, I think you can take into consideration the location, old and run-down buildings, and even the people themselves. While Our Health Depot broke down the ugliest town in all fifty states, we are going to focus on Indiana and Kentucky in this article.

Ugliest Town in Indiana

Okay, by now, you have had a little time to think about what could be named the ugliest city in Indiana. This town isn't located here in southern Indiana. In fact, it was made famous by the musical "The Music Man" and is the home of Michael Jackson. If you guessed Gary, Indiana, you would have been correct.

Our Health Depot had this to say about Gary:

All we know about Gary, Indiana we learned from The Music Man, so we didn't realize that some people had such strong, negative feelings against this midwestern city. However, some people seem to think that there's one thing that Gary is seriously lacking in — color. "Gary, Indiana. The entire city was gray. No color. I thought I had gone colorblind until I got to Chicago." This guy doesn't mince words, and, no matter how you feel about Gary, Indiana, you have to admit that was a pretty solid joke.

The Ugliest Town in Kentucky

So what about Kentucky? Do you have any guesses for this one? Well, despite its name, you won't find any of those Duke boys here. However, I'm sure there are still some "Good Ole Boys" in this town. Hazard, Kentucky was named the ugliest town in Kentucky.

Why was Hazard named the ugliest town in Kentucky? Here's what Our Health Depot said:

Names don’t account for much of anything, but come on! Hazard? That’s a terrible name for drawing in residents and certainly doesn’t highlight the beauty of the town. Well, there’s not much beauty to begin with, so that actually makes sense. At least Hazard, Kentucky, wasn’t named after an actual disaster; it was just after a War of 1812 Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. Back in the early 20th century, the arrival of railroads briefly allowed guests and migrants to visit Hazard directly when it had once been isolated due to the surrounding mountains. The Great Depression ended that visitor boom, unfortunately, and the town hasn’t changed much and is generally boring to look at. In fact, it was President Clinton’s first stop on his national tour of poverty-stricken communities in 1999. Not exactly something you want to hear...

Again, these aren't my opinions here. I'm just the messenger, so no disrespect if you live in these towns. If you're curious as to what other towns Our Health Depot had on its list, you can check out the full list of the ugliest town in each state by clicking here.

KEEP READING: 40 Real Indiana Towns with Quirky, Weird, and Funny Names

Outside the major cities, the Hoosier state is full of tiny little towns you've probably passed through on your way to one of those cities. Most of them are likely 100 to 150 years old, or older, and have been around far longer than the large metropolitan areas such as Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, South Bend, and Evansville. Typically, they were started by early settlers who found their way to the state and decided to make it home. Eventually, others would join them, and a community was formed. Over time, as the surrounding areas grew, most of them were folded into those areas and governed by the nearest city or county's governing body officially making them "unincorporated," meaning they did not have their own formally organized municipal government.

A scroll through Wikipedia's long list of unincorporated communities in Indiana shows several of them have names that by today's standards would be considered weird, quirky, or just downright right funny. These are my 40 favorities.