Shepherdsville, Kentucky

Shepherdsville is a home rule-class city on the Salt River in Bullitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county, located just south of Louisville. The population was 11,222 during the 2010 U.S. Census.

History

American Indians have been shown to have lived in the area for at least 15,000 years.

The vicinity was originally known as "Bullitt's Lick" for the salt licks discovered by surveyor Capt. Thomas Bullitt in 1773. The area was home to Kentucky's first commercial salt works, although these were shuttered in the 1830s by competition from Virginian works along the Kanawha River. Shepherdsville grew up around the mill and store erected along the Salt River by Adam Shepherd, who had purchased 900 acres (360 ha) in the area. The city named for him received its charter in 1793 and became the county seat when Bullitt County was formed in 1796.

The first post office opened in 1806. In 1836, a mineral water spa called Paroquet Springs opened. The mineral water supposedly had medicinal properties, so sufferers from a variety of maladies visited Shepherdsville to drink and bathe in the water. In the mid-1850s, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad's mainline was constructed nearby. During the Civil War, the railroad bridge over the Salt River at Shepherdsville was a potential target for sabotage and was guarded by Union troops. In 1879, the Paroquet Springs hotel burned to the ground, but water from the springs continued to be bottled and sold until 1915. The Lynching of Marie Thompson of Shepherdsville happened in 1904, close at the jail, near Lebanon Junction. The deadliest train wreck in Kentucky history, which killed about fifty people in a two-train collision, took place in Shepherdsville several days before Christmas in 1917.