Owensboro, originally known as “Yellowbanks” in reference to the color of the soil along the Ohio River banks, was first settled in 1797. The Owensboro area has grown steadily, while retaining the “small town quality” of a friendly city of warm-hearted and hospitable people. Owensboro ranks as Kentucky’s third largest city in terms of population and is the industrial and cultural capital of western Kentucky. Owensboro is the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, and lies on the southern banks of the Ohio River, one of the nation’s major waterways, in the western Kentucky coal field region. Owensboro is located 32 miles southeast of Evansville, Indiana, 123 miles north of Nashville, Tennessee, and 109 miles southwest of Louisville, Kentucky. A long awaited new bridge from Owensboro into southern Indiana that will afford a direct route to Interstate 64 in Indiana, providing a link from St. Louis to Louisville, will be completed this summer.