Monkeys Eyebrow is an unincorporated rural community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Ballard County

Ballard County, Kentucky

Ballard County is a county located in west of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was created by the Kentucky State Legislature in 1842, and is named for Captain Bland Ballard, a soldier, statesman, and member of the Kentucky General Assembly. He was one of the few Kentucky volunteers to survive the...

, Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is generally the northwesternmost community in the Jackson Purchase

Jackson Purchase

The Jackson Purchase is a region in the state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and Tennessee River to the east. Although technically part of Kentucky at its statehood in 1792, the land did not come under definitive U.S. control until 1818, when...

 area of western Kentucky that is identified on the highway maps distributed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is Kentucky's state-funded agency charged with building and maintaining U.S...

. It was formerly frequently mentioned in the signoff message of WPSD-TV

WPSD-TV

WPSD-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase, Southern Illinois, and the Missouri Bootheel. Licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in Monkeys Eyebrow, Kentucky...

 in nearby Paducah

Paducah, Kentucky

Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...

 as the location of its transmitter. The community is part of the Paducah, KY-IL

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 Micropolitan Statistical Area

Paducah micropolitan area

The Paducah Micropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of four counties – three in the Jackson Purchase region of Kentucky and one in southern Illinois – anchored by the city of Paducah, Kentucky....

.

A nearby attraction is the state-controlled Ballard County Wildlife Management Area. One theory on the origin of this unique name is that, when looking at a map of Ballard County, it favors a monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

's head. Monkeys Eyebrow is located where the monkey's eyebrow would be located.

A common joke in the region is that the city of Paducah lies halfway between Monkeys Eyebrow and Possum Trot

Possum Trot, Kentucky

Possum Trot is an unincorporated community in Marshall County, Kentucky, United States. Possum Trot is located on Highway 62 between Paducah and Calvert City in the Jackson Purchase region of Western Kentucky....

 (a tiny community in Marshall County

Marshall County, Kentucky

Marshall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2000, the population was 30,125. The 2007 Census Bureau population estimate was 31,258. Its county seat is Benton. It was a dry county until 2004, when residents of Calvert City voted to allow sales of liquor by the drink in...

).

There were two Monkey's Eyebrows, commonly known as Old Monkey and New Monkey. One was at the top of a small hill, the other at the bottom. There were stores at both locations. Today, there are no stores. According to an article nearly 30 years ago in the county newspaper, the Advance Yeoman, the area acquired its unique name around the turn of the 20th century.

Stories related to Monkey's Eyebrow and Ballard County can be read at the website, http://www.monkeyseyebrow.org , or monkeys eyebrowstories.com