Whitesville, KY

Whitesville began as Cross Roads in the 1840s, when Dr. William Lee White and Benjamin Ramsey built a log building that served as both school and store. The settlement sat where the Knottsville and Leitchfield trails crossed; it was renamed Whitesville in 1867 and elected its first board of trustees. The city’s early business list included general stores, a drugstore, blacksmiths, churches, a grist mill, tobacco houses, and physicians. The 2020 census counted 580 residents.

Kentucky Route 54 runs through the center, linking Whitesville with Owensboro and the wider Daviess County road network. Kentucky Motor Speedway gives the city a distinctly local venue: the 3/8-mile short track was built in 1960 and later gained an infield figure-eight crossover. City services also remain visible in daily routines; the water and sewer systems were upgraded in 2021–22 after earlier generations built the first waterworks and sewer lines. Whitesville’s map therefore joins a former crossroads trading town, a working municipal system, and a motor-racing facility on the same central road.