Owensboro is Kentucky’s third-largest city with 54,000 people. It is located on the south bank of the Ohio River about 80 miles southwest of Louisville in northwest Kentucky.

Home to Brescia and Kentucky Wesleyan Colleges, Owensboro is sometimes known as “Kentucky’s Festival City,” as it hosts several major riverfront festivals, notably the popular International Bar-B-Q Festival in May and a bluegrass festival in September. Bluegrass fans can also investigate the International Bluegrass Music Museum.

Owensboro was founded in the late 1790s with the name Yellow Banks, but it was renamed to honor Colonel Abraham Owen who died in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe.

The Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History houses exhibits on natural, cultural, and Native American history, while the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art features nineteenth- and twentieth-century European paintings and sculpture, as well as decorative arts dating back to the sixteenth century.

It is the only fine art museum in West Kentucky. Local natural attractions include Diamond Lake Resort and Ben Hawes State Park, which offers an extensive range of sporting facilities.

Owensboro has its own airport and buses service the area.