[3] Butler County is included in the Bowling Green, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Numerous archaeological sites are located along the Green River in Butler County.

[4] The area now known as Butler County was first settled by the families of Richard C. Dellium and James Forgy, who founded a town called Berry's Lick.

The new county was named for Major General Richard Butler, who died at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.

[3] In June of that year, the Kentucky Governor commissioned a study to locate a county seat.

For much of its history, Butler County's main line of transportation was the Green River.

As railroads became more important economically, the county compensated by building a series of roads to major trade centers such as U.S. 231 connecting Beaver Dam with Owensboro.

Green River was eventually closed to traffic after Woodbury's Lock and Dam Number 4 washed out in 1965 and Rochester's Lock and Dam Number 3 was abandoned by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1980.

Completion of the William H. Natcher Parkway (now I-165) linked the area to the national interstate system in 1970.

Mediacom is the primary cable television and internet provider serving the county.