Pikeville, Kentucky in the context of "Pikeville Cut-Through"

A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exhibited in displays. Such museums are often small in nature and generally have a low budget for their running costs. As such, many of the collections are compiled, cataloged, and interpreted by amateur historians as well as professionals.

These museums can cover a governmental defined unit such as a town, city, county, or parish or they can cover an area defined within the museum's mission. In the United States while some museums may be part of the local government or receive funding from them in some way. However, most local history museums are usually self-funded. These museums can also run as independent organizations or they can managed by an accompanying local historical society which also will maintain an archive of local records in addition to the museum's three-dimensional object collection.

The Big Sandy Heritage Center Museum is located in Pikeville, Kentucky. Established in 2003 in the old Chesapeake and Ohio Depot, it has been located on the 4th floor of the old Judicial Annex in downtown Pikeville since 2015.

The museum portrays the people, places, and events that makes the area unique. Exhibits include the American Civil War, Hatfield-McCoy feud, Eastern Kentucky railways, the precolonial era, Pikeville Cut Through, domestic life, the Heritage Room, medicine, war, politics and coal mining. In 2015, the museum hosted the traveling exhibit, The Hatfields & McCoys: American Blood Feud, which was on loan from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Pike County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 58,669. Its county seat is Pikeville. The county was founded in 1821. It is a moist county—a county in which alcohol sales are prohibited but which contains a "wet" city. In three of the county's cities—Pikeville, Elkhorn City, and Coal Run Village—package alcohol sales are legal.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Passenger Depot in Pikeville, Kentucky was built by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1923. The station along with a small baggage depot nearby were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 23, 1987.

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway reached Pikeville in 1907. The depot is a one-story brick structure built in the Classical Revival style of architecture. About 150 feet (46 m) from the depot is a small, similarly designed baggage station. At one point, the depot and baggage station were connected by a canopy, which has since been removed.

The University of Pikeville (UPIKE) is a private university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Pikeville, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1889 by the Presbyterian Church and is located on a 25-acre (10 ha) campus on a hillside overlooking downtown Pikeville.

The university is home to the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine, one of three medical schools in the state of Kentucky. The university confers associate, bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees through its six academic divisions and one medical college; enrollment was 2,366 students in fall 2016.