24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Vicco, KY

Vicco is a former city in eastern Kentucky whose territory straddles Perry and Knott counties.

The community began as a coal mining camp originally known as Montago, named for the nearby Montgomery Creek and the Montgomery Creek Coal Company.

In 1923 the town was renamed Vicco, taking its name from the initials of the Virginia Iron, Coal and Coke Company, the area's major employer, and its post office opened the same year.

In its coal-boom years Vicco was a lively entertainment hub for miners, with bars and two movie theaters, leading the New York Times to liken it to a coal miner's "Vegas."

Vicco is known locally by the nickname "The Town Too Tough to Die."

On January 16, 2013, Vicco became the smallest city in the United States to pass an ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, joining Louisville, Lexington, and Covington as Kentucky's only cities with such fairness laws at the time.

The decline of the coal industry brought business closures and severe budget deficits to the small town.

The 2020 census counted 327 residents in Vicco, little changed from 334 in 2010 and 318 in 2000.

The 2000 census recorded 132 households and 93 families in the town.

Vicco sits in the Carr Fork valley of eastern Perry County, below Kentucky Route 15, and covers about 0.8 square miles.