Backusburg is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Calloway County,

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. Two different

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s are located near the community; one of them, known as the Backusburg Mounds, is one of the premier sites throughout the

Jackson Purchase The Jackson Purchase, also known as the Purchase Region or simply the Purchase, is a region in the U.S. state of Kentucky bounded by the Mississippi River to the west, the Ohio River to the north, and the Tennessee River to the east. Jackson's P ...

. A post office was first established at the site on April 27, 1846, as Clarks River, Kentucky. This post office was closed on July 6, 1860. The post office was re-established on November 7, 1873, as Backusburg. The town is said to have been named after Asa Backus (who co-owned a sawmill) after he won a coin flip with another man.

References

Unincorporated communities in Calloway County, Kentucky Unincorporated communities in Kentucky {{CallowayCountyKY-geo-stub