to
Update
is a city in Pulaski County, Kentucky, United States. The city population was 11,352 at the 2000 census. The population of the Somerset Micropolitan Statistical Area was 56,217 at the 2000 census.
Somerset was first settled in 1798 by Thomas Hansford and several members of the Jasper family and it received its name from Somerset County, New Jersey, the place where some of the settlers once lived. Somerset became the county seat of Pulaski County in 1802 and was incorporated as a city in 1887. A significant Civil War battle was fought at Mill Springs (now "Nancy") about 8 miles west of Somerset, and a museum exists at the site of the battle. The completion of Lake Cumberland in 1950 transformed Somerset from a sleepy rural community into one of the largest recreation centers in Kentucky drawing more than 1.7 million visitors yearly, the bulk of which occurs between the Memorial and Labor Day holidays. Lake Cumberland is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world (101 miles in length, with an average depth of 85 feet and a normal pool containing more than 2 trillion gallons of water). Somerset is also close to Cumberland Falls and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area; its tourism industries are, in part, due to its scenic and varied landscape. .