Tradewater River

[3] It rises in northern Christian County, approximately 8 miles (13 km) north of Hopkinsville.

It flows generally northwest in a tight meandering course, past Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park, where a tributary is impounded to form Lake Beshear just upstream from its mouth on the Tradewater.

It flows past Dawson Springs and joins the Ohio from the southeast approximately 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Sturgis.

The Shawnee Hills region is underlain by Pennsylvanian limestone, sandstone, and shale which contain deposits of coal.

The Pennyroyal region, which is drained by tributaries of the upper Tradewater, is a dissected upland plateau underlain by Mississippian limestone bedrock.