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Henderson, KY

City of Henderson
City
North Main Street
North Main Street
Location of Henderson within Kentucky.
Location of Henderson within Kentucky.
Coordinates: 37°50′8″N 87°34′51″W / 37.83556°N 87.58083°W / 37.83556; -87.58083Coordinates: 37°50′8″N 87°34′51″W / 37.83556°N 87.58083°W / 37.83556; -87.58083
Country United States
State Kentucky
County Henderson
Established 1797
Incorporated 1840
Named for land speculator Richard Henderson
Government
 • Mayor Steve Austin
Area
 • Total 17.1 sq mi (44.2 km2)
 • Land 15.0 sq mi (38.8 km2)
 • Water 2.1 sq mi (5.5 km2)  12.36%
Elevation 407 ft (124 m)
Population (2010)
 • Total 28,757
Time zone CST (UTC-6)
 • Summer (DST) CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Code 42420, 42419
Area code(s) 270 & 364
FIPS code 21-35866
GNIS feature ID 0494023
Website www.cityofhendersonky.org

Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River in Henderson County in western Kentucky in the United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the "Kentuckiana" or the "Tri-State Area".

Notable residents have included the ornithologist, naturalist, and painter John James Audubon and blues legend W.C. Handy. For more than 100 years the city has been home to the Southern Cherokee Nation.

The city was named after Col. Richard Henderson, an eighteenth-century pioneer and land speculator, by his associates Gen. Samuel Hopkins and Thomas Allin. The Henderson County also shares this namesake.

Henderson has its roots in a small, block-wide strip of land high above the Ohio River, the site of the present Audubon Mill Park directly south of the city's riverfront boat dock. A village on this site was called Red Banks by the local Cherokee on account of its reddish clay soil. By the early 1790s, Red Banks had a tavern and several European-American families along with the Cherokee. On Nov. 16, 1792, resident Robert Simpson wrote to Col. Alexander D. Orr in Lexington, requesting help to appoint a magistrate for Red Banks to deal with some of its 30 families he felt were of dubious (criminal) character. During this period, the Red Banks settlement had gained notoriety as a frontier haven for westward moving, outlaws and their families. One such family was that of Squire Samuel Mason. By that time, excluding the Cherokee, the free male inhabitants of Red Bank totaled 62.


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