Hey I thought I would start a group on here where people from the county that are still there and for the ones that have moved away could keep in touch. Feel free to post things on here like events or stuff like that, but please just try to keep it clean.

County History

BALLARD COUNTY. Located in extreme western Kentucky at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi risers. Ballard County is part of the region known as the Jackson Purchase. Comprising an area of 254 square miles, Ballard County, the ninety-third county in order of formation, was established on February 15, 1842, out of parts of Hickman and McCracken counties and named in honor of Capt. Bland Ballard, a participant in the battle of Fallen Timbers (1793) and the River Raisin (1813), and a member of the Kentucky General Assembly. Ballard County is bordered by the Ohio River on the north and the Mississippi River on the west, and Carlisle and McCracken counties share its southern and eastern boundaries, respectively. WICKLIFFE is the county seat.

Ranging from flatland to moderately rolling hills, the topography of the county is fairly uniform. Bluffs along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Barlow southward are among the main geographic features of the area. Extending at certain points about five miles inland, the Ohio River floodplain creates numerous swamps, sloughs, ponds, and lakes. With about 65 percent of the land occupied by farms in 1987, the county has remained a highly agricultural area. Crops such as tobacco and soybeans, along with corn and wheat, made the county forty-eighth in agricultural receipts among Kentucky counties in 1987.

Prehistoric Indians first inhabited the Ballard County area about 800-1350, as the Wickliffe mounds, the remains of an ancient village, testify. This culture had long since disappeared by the time Europeans visited the region. While looking for the mouth of the Mississippi River, French explorer La Salle stopped near the site of present-day Wickliffe about 1682, but the first attempt at white settlement did not come until nearly a century later. In 1780 Gen. George Rogers Clark established FORT JEFFERSON at the mouth of Mayfield Creek. In 1781, following a five-day siege by Chickasaw Indians, the fort was abandoned. With the cessation of Indian threats and the inclusion of the area in the Jackson Purchase of 1818, settlers returned to the Ballard County region and Fort Jefferson. Although these new settlements outlasted the original settlement on Mayfeld Creek, the county remained sparsely populated for some time.

During the Civil war, though Southern sympathizers predominated, Ballard County was a Union stronghold. After reactivating old Fort Jefferson and building a second military installation just north of Wickliffe called Fort Holt, Union Gen. Ulysses Grant used these defenses as supply stations for his campaigns along the Mississippi River. Despite this heavy Federal presence, about four hundred Ballard County men joined the Confederate forces, whereas only about one hundred enlisted in the Union army.

Following the war, Ballard County residents resumed their mostly agricultural way of life. The courthouse, located in Blandville since the creation of the county in 1842, burned in 1880, setting off a heated debate over the location of the county seat. Because Wickliffe was a river port and was served by two railroads, the Illinois Central and the Mobile & Ohio, many citizens favored it as the county seat. A public election held in May 1880 approved Wickliffe, but proponents of Blandville disputed the fairness of the vote. Nevertheless, the county seat was moved to Wickliffe, and in 1882 the court of appeals upheld the election results. In 1884 voters again chose Wickliffe as the Ballard County seat. The county reached its highest population of 14,378 in 1880; it lost population in 1886, when Carlisle County was created out of the portion of Ballard County below Mayfield Creek.

As the county entered the twentieth century, its location on the rivers and the Illinois Central Railroad made Ballard County one of western Kentucky's leading trading centers. Towns such as Barlow, Cairo, and Wickliffe all prospered. Nonetheless, agriculture has remained the most important feature of the economy. Although no major highway serves it (the Purchase Parkway and I-24 both bypass the county), industry has come to Ballard County, the most important being the Westvaco Corporation, a pulp and paper producer, which was established in 1970. The largest industrial employer in the county, Westvaco employed 639 people in 1990.

The Peal and Ballard County Wildlife Management Areas, purchased in 1954, attract hunters and fishermen throughout the county to a superior wildlife habitat. The wildlife management areas are nationally famous for waterfowl hunting.

The population of Ballard County was 8,276 in 1970; 8,798 in 1980; and 7,902 in 1990.