The crater is approximately 3 miles (about 5 km) wide and its age is estimated to be less than 300 million years (Permian).

It forms part of the string of geological features that made the Cumberland Gap a critical westward passage during the settlement of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The crater was identified in 1966 when Robert Dietz discovered shatter cones in sandstone, which led to the further identification of shocked quartz.

[5] Without Middlesboro crater, it would have been difficult for packhorses to navigate this gap, formed by differential erosion along one of the subsequent cross faults, [citation needed] and improbable that wagon roads would have been constructed at an early date.

While coal mining is still the town's primary economic driver, local leaders hope to turn the crater into a tourist destination.