The Owen County Agricultural Heritage Trail Project began in 2009 as a result of the Owen County Vision Project. The purpose was to document and preserve the rich agricultural history and traditions of farming in Owen County by recording oral histories of our farm families and painting murals on tobacco barns to tell the stories of farming .Through the grant from the Kentucky Oral History Commission, the committee received a grant to interview 34 men and women, ranging in ages from early 40's to late 80's.

The committee started planning the murals for the "Tobacco Heritage Trail" to illustrate the  production of tobacco over the years. The following murals have been planned and developed over the past ten years and hung throughout the county:

- Horsepower

- Growing Plants & Pulling Plants

- Tobacco Setting

-Tobacco Cultivation

- Cutting & Housing

- Bulking & Stripping

- To Market

- Farm to Table

- Owen County Bicentennial  2019 ( Final mural showcases the very early history of transporting tobacco on the river and celebrates Owen County's Bicentennial.)

Over 40 businesses, organizations, and individuals have provided financial support (over $60,000) to make these murals possible over the years.The committee believed the art and history of these murals combine to honor our heritage in a special way. Owen County is a small community but treasures its agricultural heritage that laid a solid foundation for our residents of today and tomorrow.

The committee received a $2,500 matching grant from the Kentucky Historical Society to developed the recorded farmers and families voices into a website for each mural. The website will feature a picture of each mural, a Google map to locate the mural, brief text to describe the mural and an audio link to hear the local farmers explaining each mural. Signage will be placed at each mural directing visitors to the website.There are more than 30 hours of recordings of our farm families. However,, without the farmers' voices, the murals  are snapshots in time. Adding their stories will bring the murals to life and create a unique tourism opportunity for Owen County,  This is being developed at this time with the completion in the next six months.

The "Tobacco Heritage Trail" provides for visitors and local community individuals to learn about tobacco production and to hear first hand from the local farmers. It is through their stories and with their voices that one can hear the pride they had for their work and the "calling" they felt to leave the land better than they found it.