Hopkins County, Kentucky

Hopkins County, Kentucky
Hopkins County Courthouse in Madisonville
Location in the U.S. state of Kentucky
Kentucky's location in the U.S.
Founded	1806
Named for	Samuel Hopkins
Seat	Madisonville
Largest city	Madisonville
Area
• Total	554 sq mi (1,435 km2)
• Land	542 sq mi (1,404 km2)
• Water	12 sq mi (31 km2), 2.2%
Population
• (2010)	46,920
• Density	87/sq mi (34/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	hopkinscounty.ky.gov

Hopkins County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 46,920. Its county seat is Madisonville. The county was formed in 1806 and named for General Samuel Hopkins, an officer in both the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and later a Kentucky legislator and U.S. Congressman.

The Madisonville, KY Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Hopkins County.

The topography ranges from flatlands along the broad river valleys of the Pond River, Tradewater River, and Green River, to hilly and rolling land in the southern and central parts of the county. Coal mines operate in the southern part of Hopkins County and agriculture is a mainstay in the northern part. Major crops are soybeans, corn, and tobacco. Along with coal, resources include oil and natural gas. Hopkins County ranks second in the state both in terms of total coal extracted (782 million tons) and in total coal reserves remaining (7.2 billion tons).

The earliest inhabitants were prehistoric Native Americans who lived, hunted, and farmed in the region. One of their settlements was a rough stone structure on Fort Ridge, which has since been destroyed by strip mining for coal. Some of the early settlers were Revolutionary War veterans who received land grants for their service from Virginia in the area southwest of the Green River. Among these was Baron Von Steuben, a Prussian general who had trained George Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge during the winter of 1776-77. He had received a grant of several thousand acres in the northwest part of the county. According to tradition, Von Steuben was wounded in an Indian attack on his first visit to Kentucky. He then quit-claimed his property. Nevertheless, a salt spring on his grant came to be known as Steuben's Lick. By the 1880s, the community that grew up around the lick was known as Manitou.