Owensboro: Barbecue, Bluegrass Music, and the Ohio River
Owensboro occupies a bend of the Ohio River in Daviess County, western Kentucky. The city was incorporated in 1866 and named after Colonel Abraham Owen, a Kentucky militia officer killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Its position on the river made it a tobacco and whiskey shipping point during the 19th century, and Daviess County was once one of the leading tobacco-producing counties in the United States.
The city claims a distinctive place in Kentucky's culinary history. Owensboro-style barbecue centers on mutton rather than pork or beef, a tradition linked to the area's Catholic parishes, which held burgoo and barbecue fundraisers using older sheep from local farms. The International Bar-B-Q Festival, held annually since 1979, draws tens of thousands of visitors to the riverfront.
Bluegrass music also has deep roots here. Bill Monroe, widely credited as the father of bluegrass, was born in the nearby community of Rosine in Ohio County. The International Bluegrass Music Museum relocated to a new facility on the Owensboro riverfront in 2018, anchoring a broader redevelopment of the downtown waterfront that includes a convention center and public green space.
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Owensboro occupies a bend of the Ohio River in Daviess County, western Kentucky. The city was incorporated in 1866 and named after Colonel Abraham Owen, a Kentucky militia officer killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Its position on the river made it a tobacco and whiskey shipping point during the 19th century, and Daviess County was once one of the leading tobacco-producing counties in the United States.
The city claims a distinctive place in Kentucky's culinary history. Owensboro-style barbecue centers on mutton rather than pork or beef, a tradition linked to the area's Catholic parishes, which held burgoo and barbecue fundraisers using older sheep from local farms. The International Bar-B-Q Festival, held annually since 1979, draws tens of thousands of visitors to the riverfront.
Bluegrass music also has deep roots here. Bill Monroe, widely credited as the father of bluegrass, was born in the nearby community of Rosine in Ohio County. The International Bluegrass Music Museum relocated to a new facility on the Owensboro riverfront in 2018, anchoring a broader redevelopment of the downtown waterfront that includes a convention center and public green space.
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