Buzzard's Roost, Kentucky

The northwestern section of Daviess County, west of Bon Harbor, was a low, swampy area infested with mosquitoes. It was also inhabited by feral cattle and hogs which had escaped from early farms. As a result it was a great area for hunters, and its heavy forests and wetlands discouraged settlement.

As late as the 1840’s, settlement was discouraged in the area because of the presence of white snake root, which caused the disease called “Milk Sickness” when people drank the milk of cows which had grazed upon the weed.

The area was home to people who were considered “rough and indolent”, according to the 1883 Daviess County History. “Most of their time was spent in hunting and chopping cord wood to supply steamboats...a good share of their money was spent on whiskey,” the History declared.

Much of the Buzzard’s Roost area remained largely undeveloped until the coming of the Louisville, Henderson, and St. Louis Railroad in the 1880’s, the construction of which required the draining of vast areas of wetland, enabling the land to then be cleared for agriculture.

Its reputation as a “rough” area continued, however, especially along the long sand bars along the south bank of the Ohio River. Today the entire area is in cropland.

Reference to an article by Glenn Hodges