County Past
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Rockcastle County, Kentucky

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
4historic places
—earliest paper
1810formed
16,037pop. 2020
27cemeteries
2CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 4 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1983. Most listings are in or near Renfro Valley, Mt. Vernon, Mount Vernon.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Kentucky is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Rockcastle titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

2 of 4 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

4 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Great Saltpetre CaveMt. VernonDistrict2013
Hiatt, Bennett, Log HouseRenfro ValleyBuilding1984
Lair, John, House and StablesRenfro ValleyBuilding1995
Mount Vernon Commercial DistrictMount VernonDistrict1983

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Rockcastle was formed in 1810 (1810-04-01) from Knox, Lincoln, Madison, Pulaski.

ROCKCASTLE created from KNOX, LINCOLN, MADISON, and PULASKI.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Rockcastle County population from 1810 to 2020 (Census historical series).

17k9,4481,7311810184018801920196020002020
1810182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
1,7312,2493,4095,3439,67012,41615,40617,16513,92512,33413,97316,58216,037

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

27 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 27 of 27 listed
NameLatLon
Abney Cemetery37.51563-84.2691
Brock Cemetery37.46063-84.40215
Bustle Cemetery37.22536-84.27354
Chastine Cemetery37.48147-84.24187
Denney Cemetery37.3623-84.42021
Elmwood Cemetery37.35341-84.33632
Fairview Cemetery37.50258-84.31604
Friendship Cemetery37.27507-84.4266
Hardin Cemetery37.51063-84.23048
Jep Hill Cemetery37.35471-84.21
Johnetta Cemetery37.42591-84.23437
King and Clark Cemetery37.46915-84.22437
Lover Cemetery37.34036-84.29521
McKinney Cemetery37.2598-84.36216
Merritt Cemetery37.40397-84.3016
Morning View Church Cemetery37.32048-84.19799
Negro Creek Cemetery37.38896-84.45521
Phelps Cemetery37.2198-84.29326
Piney Grove Cemetery37.40813-84.42466
Poplar Grove Cemetery37.29535-84.45303
Providence Cemetery37.33501-84.46332
Riddle Cemetery37.44285-84.35132
Rimmel Cemetery37.43814-84.33526
Robinson Cemetery37.29897-84.1616
Sayers Cemetery37.35702-84.41216
Saylor Cemetery37.45869-84.36326
Sigmon Cemetery37.43063-84.33132
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Wilmot Church37.44788-84.43733

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Camp Wild Cat40215.0 kmKY002
Richmond2,08332.3 kmKY007

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Rockcastle County, Kentucky

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.