- Bullitt County, Kentucky
-
Bullitt County, Kentucky 
Bullitt County Courthouse in Shepherdsville.
Location in the state of Kentucky
Kentucky's location in the U.S.Founded 1797 Named for Alexander Scott Bullitt, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky (1800–1804). Seat Shepherdsville Largest city Mount Washington Area
- Total
- Land
- Water
300.20 sq mi (778 km²)
299.08 sq mi (775 km²)
1.12 sq mi (3 km²), 0.37%Population
- (2010)
- Density
74,319
205/sq mi (79/km²)Time zone Eastern: UTC-5/-4 Website bullittcounty.ky.gov Bullitt County is a county in the U.S. state of Kentucky[1] located in the far western Bluegrass region known as the Knobs, with an area of 300 square miles (780 km2). The population was 74,319 in the 2010 Census. Just south of the city of Louisville, part of the Louisville metropolitan area commonly known as Kentuckiana, the county is home to several commuter towns including the cities of Hillview, Lebanon Junction, Mount Washington and Shepherdsville - the county seat. The western fifth of the county (40,000 acres (160 km2)) is reserved for military training as part of the United States Army post of Fort Knox.[2]
Contents
History
The first inhabitants of the land that would become Bullitt County were the Paleo-Indians who entered North America approximately 11,500 to 10,000 years BP. These people, whose ancestors can be traced back to Central Asia, were nomadic, hunters and gatherers whose remains have been discovered near the area's mineral springs or salt licks where big game such as the mammoth, bison and ground sloth once gathered. Native Americans, including the Shawnee people who probably considered this region part of their homeland and certainly valued it as a hunting ground, were their descendants. [3] [4]
European colonization of the Americas led to competing claims to the lands west of the Appalachians and east of the Mississippi river with France ultimately ceding control to Britain at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. Veterans of the war were promised land and in 1773 Captain Thomas Bullitt was sent on a surveying expedition of the area around the Falls of the Ohio by the governor of Virginia. During his explorations of the land that would become Bullitt County, he came upon an unusually large salt lick subsequently named after him: Bullitt's Lick. [5]
Bullitt's Lick became an important saltwork to the region - supplying salt by pack train and flatboat as far off as Illinois. In fact, the Bullitt's Lick saltwork was Kentucky's first industry and in production until around 1830, when the steamboat and importation brought access to less expensive sources of salt.
The first settlement of the area and the first station on the Wilderness Road between Harrodsburg and the Falls of the Ohio was a fort called Brashear's Station or the Salt River Garrison, built in 1779 at the mouth of Floyd's Fork. Shepherdsville, named after Adam Shepherd - a prosperous business man who purchased the land near the Falls of Salt River in 1793, is the oldest town and became the county seat.
On January 1, 1797, the county of Bullitt - named after Thomas Bullitt's nephew and Kentucky's first Lieutenant Governor Alexander Scott Bullitt - was created from land given by Jefferson and Nelson counties through an act approved on December 13, 1796 by the Kentucky General Assembly. In 1811, the northwestern area of the county expanded to include land given by Jefferson County. In 1824, an eastern area of the county was given to help form Spencer County.[6]
Geography
Topography
According to the 2000 census, the county has a total area of 300.20 square miles (777.5 km2), of which 299.08 square miles (774.6 km2) (or 99.63%) is land and 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) (or 0.37%) is water.[7]
Cities and towns
Although large-scale residential development hasn't made its way south of county seat Shepherdsville, the growth is apparent in and around that town and in Mount Washington, as well as points north along I-65 towards Hillview. Both Shepherdsville and Mount Washington have stretched their boundaries such that they are nearly touching each other. The 10-mile (16 km) stretch of Kentucky 44 that connects the two towns have homes nearly the entire expanse.
Demographics
Graph of Bullitt County population by decade
Historical populations Census Pop. %± 1800 3,542 — 1810 4,311 21.7% 1820 5,831 35.3% 1830 5,652 −3.1% 1840 6,334 12.1% 1850 6,774 6.9% 1860 7,289 7.6% 1870 7,781 6.7% 1880 8,521 9.5% 1890 8,291 −2.7% 1900 9,602 15.8% 1910 9,487 −1.2% 1920 9,328 −1.7% 1930 8,868 −4.9% 1940 9,511 7.3% 1950 11,349 19.3% 1960 15,726 38.6% 1970 26,090 65.9% 1980 43,346 66.1% 1990 47,567 9.7% 2000 61,236 28.7% 2010 74,319 21.4% Kentucky State Data Center As of the census[8] of 2000, there were 61,236 people, 22,171 households, and 17,736 families residing in the county. The population density was 205 per square mile (79 /km2). There were 23,160 housing units at an average density of 77 per square mile (30 /km2). The racial makeup of the county was 98.07% White, 0.38% Black or African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.16% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. 0.63% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race.
There were 22,171 households out of which 39.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.40% were married couples living together, 10.40% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.00% were non-families. 16.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.40% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.07.
The age distribution was 27.20% under the age of 18, 8.60% from 18 to 24, 32.70% from 25 to 44, 23.70% from 45 to 64, and 7.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 98.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.20 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $50,058 (2005), and the median income for a family was $49,481. Males had a median income of $35,851 versus $24,098 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,339. About 6.20% of families and 7.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.40% of those under age 18 and 7.60% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
A UPS 757 Freighter aircraftBullitt County, which is bisected by I-65, the main north-south transportation corridor, has grown into a thriving distribution hub, and several of its major business parks are just about 16 miles (26 km) from Louisville International Airport and UPS’s global air-freight hub Worldport. More than 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) of distribution, warehousing and other complexes have been built and absorbed in Bullitt County since 2000, and additional construction is ongoing.
In October 2011, Zappos which already is Bullitt County’s largest employer with more than 2,300 full-time workers, was reported to have plans to add 5,000 more employees in the next three years. The company has also outgrown the more than 1 million square feet of processing space it operates in Bullitt County and plans to build a 1.2 million-square-foot facility next year to keep up with its rapid growth. [9]
Additionally, Bullitt residents have easy access to major job centers such as Elizabethtown, Fort Knox, and Louisville.Law and government
Public safety
There are several police agencies in Bullitt County. The primary law enforcement agency in the county is the Bullitt County Sheriff.[10] The current Sheriff of Bullitt County is Dave Greenwell. The Sheriff's Office is an elected position and is staffed by 34 Deputy Sheriff's, and four office staff. There are also 9 Deputies and Court Certified Security Officers (CCSOs) who provide courthouse security as required by Kentucky law. The Sheriff's office provides patrol, crime prevention, criminal investigation; and all other police related functions in the county. The primary areas for the Sheriff's patrol division are the unincorporated areas in Bullitt County they also provide backup for the various city police agencies. Since 1989 the Sheriff's Office has been contracted by the County Fiscal Court to provide the County Police force to the citizens of Bullitt County after the County Police Department was folded. The County Sheriff's Office has deputies assigned to the Drug Task Force, Arson Task Force, Accident Reconstruction Team, Rapid Response Team, Technical Operations, ATV Squad, Boat Patrol, Hostage Negoations, and an Incident Command Team. Most of the services are provided while on duty or for free by Special Deputies who serve their county for free, even paying for their own equipment, uniforms, and sidearm.
Fire protection is provided by both Kentucky Chapter 75 and 95 Districts and Departments. Zoneton Fire Protection District, Mount Washington Fire Protection District, and the Shepherdsville Division of Fire are currently staffed with a 24-hour professional firefighting staff. Nichols, Southeast Bullitt, and Lebanon Junction are all volunteer-based.
- Zoneton Fire District
- Mt. Washington Fire District
- Nichols Fire District
- Southeast Bullitt Fire Department
- Shepherdsville Fire Department
- Lebanon Junction Fire Department
The Bullitt County Emergency Medical Service (BCEMS) provides all emergency medical care and transport in Bullitt County. BCEMS is a division of Bullitt County Fiscal Court and authorized and funded by the County through taxes.
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Bullitt County is served by Bullitt County Public Schools. There are 6 Middle Schools:
Bernheim Middle School
Bullitt Lick Middle School
Eastside Middle School
Hebron Middle School
Mount Washington Middle School
Zoneton Middle School
There are 4 High Schools:
- Bullitt Central High School, located in Shepherdsville
- Bullitt East High School, located in Mount Washington
- North Bullitt High School, located in Hebron Estates (served by the Shepherdsville post office)
- Riverview High School
Adjacent counties
- Jefferson County - Louisville (north)
- Spencer County - (east)
- Nelson County - (southeast)
- Hardin County - Elizabethtown & Fort Knox (southwest)
See also
References
- ^ "Find A County". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/Counties/Pages/NACo_FindACounty.aspx. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ^ Kempf, Gary. The Land Before Fort Knox. Arcadia Publishing, 2004, p. 11.
- ^ Tankersley, Kenneth B. (1996). "Ice Age Hunters And Gatherers". In Lewsi, R. Barry. Kentucky Archeology. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1907-3.
- ^ Clark, Jerry E. (1993). The Shawnee. The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1839-5.
- ^ Clark, Thomas D. (1954). "England Moves West". A History of Kentucky. The John Bradford Press.
- ^ Hartley, Charles (December 29, 2010). "The Creation of Bullitt County". The Bullitt County History Museum. http://bullittcountyhistory.org/bchistory/bccreation.html.
- ^ "Census 2000 U.S. Gazetteer Files: Counties". United States Census. http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/county2k.txt. Retrieved 2011-02-13.
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Zappos plans a lot of growth -- Business First October 28, 2011.". http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/blog/2011/10/wow-zappos-plans-a-lot-of-growth.html.
- ^ Bullitt County Sheriff
External links
- Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest
- Bullitt County government and commerce website
- Bullitt County History Museum
- Bullitt County Attractions
Municipalities and communities of Bullitt County, Kentucky County seat: Shepherdsville Cities CDP Community Categories:- Kentucky counties
- 1797 establishments
- Bullitt County, Kentucky
- Louisville metropolitan area
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