Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Vanceburg, KY

Vanceburg is a home rule-class city in Lewis County, Kentucky, and serves as the Lewis County seat from its position on the south bank of the Ohio River.

Vanceburg was founded in 1797 by Joseph Baird and William Vance, who received land rights and divided the area into parcels for sale.

Local tradition holds that a coin toss was to decide the town's name for Baird, but "Bairdstown" was dropped because it too closely resembled the established Kentucky city of Bardstown, so the founders settled on Vanceburg.

The city and surrounding area originally thrived on salt production and mines along Salt Lick Creek, which flows through Vanceburg into the Ohio River.

Vanceburg was incorporated in 1827, and it became the Lewis County seat in 1863, when the seat was moved from Clarksburg.

During the great Ohio River flood of 1937, the river crested at 75 feet and all of downtown Vanceburg stood under water; the bank on which 1st Street sat slid into the river, which is why Vanceburg today has a Front Street but no 1st Street.

The 34-foot Union Monument on the Lewis County courthouse lawn, raised by public subscription in 1884, lists the 107 Lewis County men who died for the Union in the Civil War and is described by the Kentucky Historical Society as the only Union monument south of the Mason-Dixon line erected by public subscription outside a cemetery.

The 2020 census counted 1,428 residents in Vanceburg, down from 1,518 at the 2010 census, and the city is part of the Maysville micropolitan statistical area.

Kentucky Route 9 and Route 10, the AA Highway, run through the southern part of Vanceburg, while Kentucky Route 8 follows the Ohio River through the center of town.

Vanceburg children attend Lewis County Schools, whose main complex on Kentucky Route 10 west of town includes Lewis County Central Elementary, Lewis County Middle School, and Lewis County High School, a nationally distinguished school in 2015, 2016, and 2018.