It became the state's 91st county, and was named for John J. Crittenden, a U.S. senator, attorney general, and governor of Kentucky.

This footpath was used by Native Americans when hunting game that crossed the Ohio River to the salt licks in Illinois.

Generally pro-Confederate during the American Civil War, the county saw little fighting, although both armies passed through it repeatedly.

However, several skirmishes did place there, and the county courthouse was burned by Confederate Brigadier General Hylan B. Lyon during his raid across western Kentucky in December 1864.

[5] Crittenden County has valuable deposits of fluorspar, zinc, porcelain, coal, limestone, and sand for making glass.

Iron production was also a prominent industry in the mid-19th century, with several furnaces being built in the county, one owned by Andrew Jackson.

Other products produced in the county include lumber, glass, modular homes, and blue crystal that was made famous by Ball canning jars.

Although Crittenden County was by no means pro-Union during the Civil War – only 4.02 percent of its white male population served in the Union Army vis-à-vis over six percent for Kentucky as a whole[16] – the county became strongly Republican in later years due to its deep ties to Illinois areas which came to support that party as a result of the war.

In gubernatorial elections, Crittenden was during the twentieth century likewise frequently the only county west of the Western Coalfield to support the Republican candidate – a scenario observed in 1979,[17] and with one exception in 1995.