Mount Vernon, KY

Mount Vernon is Rockcastle County’s seat, set where U.S. 25 and U.S. 150 meet near I-75. The settlement began around Spout Springs in 1790, took its name from George Washington’s Virginia home, and became the county seat when Rockcastle County formed in 1810. Earlier travel routes mattered here: Boone’s Trace and the Wilderness Road crossed near the town, and later the Louisville & Nashville Railroad brought a different kind of traffic. The county’s history also runs through Renfro Valley, the long-standing music center just north of town. Mount Vernon is a Cumberland Plateau county seat with a spring at its beginning, old roads under it, and Kentucky music close by.