Gilbertsville, Kentucky
Gilbertsville is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Marshall County, Kentucky, United States. It is the closest village to the Kentucky Dam. The town was relocated to its present site when Kentucky Dam and Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park replaced the former site. As of the 2020 census, the population of Gilbertsville was 332. History Old Gilbertsville The original town of Gilbertsville was founded in 1871 near the Tennessee River as "Clear Pond", named for a nearby lake. In 1874 it was incorporated and renamed "Gilbertsville" in honor of Jesse C. Gilbert, who served as a Kentucky state senator from 1871 to 1875. The town grew to include a bank, several stores, a jail, and a school teaching grades 1-12. It had a population of approximately 300 in 1930. The village thrived because besides the fertile bottomland, it afforded the combination of river access for transportation and fishing, and railroad transportation via the Illinois Central Railroad. Modern Gilbertsville The construction of Kentucky Dam (1938–1944) meant the end for old Gilbertsville. The town was moved to its present site, initially called "West Gilbertsville", with the geographic coordinates given above, by the time Kentucky Lake was impounded in the early