Dawson Springs is a home rule-class city in Hopkins and Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,452. It was a spa and resort town visited by tourists.
History
Originally known as Tradewater Bend, the city was incorporated in 1832 under the name Dawson City by two Menser brothers.
From the late 1800s to the 1930s, Dawson Springs was well known as a spa and resort town. Visitors largely came in spring from Chicago, Louisville and points east for the curative waters, and several major hotels and boarding houses were constructed. Tourism peaked in 1901 when over 50,000 visitors came to the town of a few thousand people. The Pittsburgh Pirates held spring training there in the 1910s before being lured to St. Petersburg, Florida when the Grapefruit League formed. The advent of car travel ended the spa era as travelers began to drive to more southerly vacation spots.
Outwood Veterans Hospital was constructed here in 1922, and the economy strengthened with the onset of coal mining at Dawson Daylight Mine. The town diversified with light manufacturing in the mid-20th century, but was devastated by the outflow of those industrial jobs when NAFTA was passed in the 1990s and those manufacturing jobs moved to Mexico.
Dawson Springs is still a regional tourist destination because of the Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, which began construction where a local river was dammed and a lake formed in the 1930s. The town was named Kentucky's first Trail Town due to hiking and horse riding trails in the area.
2021 tornado
In the late evening of December 10, 2021, a large swath of the city was destroyed by an EF4 tornado, and a tornado emergency was issued for Dawson Springs and the surrounding St. Charles as the storm moved through the area. As a result, 19 people died.
Geography
Dawson Springs is located in southwestern Hopkins County at (37.171799, -87.689190). Its southern and western border is the Tradewater River, which is also the Hopkins/Caldwell County line. A small portion of Dawson Springs extends across the river into Caldwell County.
U.S. Route 62 passes through the center of the city, leading east to Nortonville and west to Princeton. Interstate 69 runs generally parallel to US 62 and touches the northern end of Dawson Springs' city limits, with access from exit 92 (Kentucky Route 109).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 2.23%, is water.