Sonora is a home rule-class city in

Hardin County, Kentucky Hardin County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. Its county seat is Elizabethtown. The county was formed in 1792. Hardin County is part of the Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area, as ...

, United States. The population was 565 as of the 2020 Census, up from 513 from the 2010 census,. It is included in the

Elizabethtown, Kentucky Elizabethtown is a home rule-class city in Hardin County, Kentucky, United States, and its county seat. The population was 31,394 at the 2020 census, making it the ninth-most populous city in the state. It is the principal city of the Elizab ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Sonora began as an

L&N Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of t ...

construction camp known as "Bucksnort" in the late 1850s. This name is believed to have been inspired by the sounds of early locomotives, which the workers thought resembled

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

snorts.Robert Rennick,
Kentucky Place Names
' (University Press of Kentucky, 2013). When a depot was established at the site in 1859, the name was changed to "Sonora". This may have referred to

Sonora, Mexico Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital (and largest) city of which is ...

, the home of a railroad contractor. U.S. Navy Master Diver

Carl Brashear Carl Maxie Brashear (19 January 1931 – 25 July 2006) was a United States Navy sailor. He was a Master Diver, rising to the position in 1970, despite having his lower left leg amputated in 1966. The 2000 film '' Men of Honor'' was based on his ...

was born in nearby Tonieville and raised in Sonora.

Geography

Sonora is located in southeastern Hardin County at (37.525783, -85.894373). The city is concentrated around the intersection of Kentucky Route 84 and Kentucky Route 720, with its municipal boundaries stretching eastward to the Hardin- LaRue county line.

Interstate 65 Interstate 65 (I-65) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, interstate highway in the central United States. As with most primary interstates ending in 5, it is a major crosscountry, north–south route, connecting between th ...

passes through the eastern end of the city, with access from Exit 81. I-65 leads north to Elizabethtown, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and south to Munfordville. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.98%, are water.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 565 people.

2000 census

At the 2000

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, there were 350 people, 138 households and 85 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 159 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.86%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 2.86%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.29% Native American, 0.29% Asian, and 1.71% from two or more races. There were 138 households, of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.6% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 3.22. The age distribution was 26.6% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 27.7% from 25 to 44, 18.6% from 45 to 64, and 19.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.2 males. The

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

was $27,361 and the median family income was $37,500. Males had a median income of $28,438 and females $14,038. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $13,554. About 6.1% of families and 10.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 11.9% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

* {{authority control Cities in Hardin County, Kentucky Cities in Kentucky Elizabethtown metropolitan area