See
Do
# The International Bar-B-Q Festival
# The Apple Festival
Eat
Owensboro is known for two dishes, barbecue and burgoo. If you haven't heard of the second: it's a traditional stew originally made with squirrel or venison, but now made with chicken, beef and vegetables.
Sleep
Get out
Henderson, to the west, is the home of Ellis Park, a thoroughbred horse track that races in the summer months.
To the south are two town that gave birth to musicians. Rosine is the birthplace of Bill Monroe, the father of Bluegrass music. Central City is the birthplace of Phil and Don Everly (the Everly Brothers), famous for their hits "Bye, Bye Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie".
Owensboro is the third largest city in Kentucky and the county seat of Daviess County.GR6 It is located on U.S. Highway 60 about 30 miles southeast of Evansville, Indiana and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to 2005 estimates, the city had a total population of 55,459 and a metropolitan population of 111,599. The city was named after Colonel Abraham Owen.
History
Owensboro was first settled in the 1790s by frontiersman William "Bill" Smeathers, for which the park on the riverfront is named, as well a Kentucky Historical Marker # 744 has also been erected in his honor at the park. The settlement was called Yellow Banks, an allusion to the color of the banks of the Ohio River. In 1817, Yellow Banks was incorporated as a city under the name Owensborough, named after Colonel Abraham Owen (who is also the namesake of Owen County, Kentucky). In 1893, the name was shortened to its present spelling of Owensboro.
Frederick Ames came to Owensboro from Washington, Pennsylvania in 1887. He started the Carriage Woodstock Company to repair horse-drawn carriages, but in 1910 began to manufacture a line of automobiles under the Ames brand name. Ames hired industrialist Vincent Bendix in 1912, and the company became the Ames Motor Car Company. Despite being called the "best $1500" car by a Texas car dealer, production ceased in 1915. The company instead began manufacturing replacement bodies for the Ford Model T. In 1922, the company again remade itself, manufacturing furniture under the name Ames Corporation. The company finally sold out to Whitehall Furniture in 1970.
On August 14, 1936, downtown Owensboro became the site of the last public hanging in the United States. Rainey Bethea...
