How Oldham County became a multi-million dollar tourism destination

When Kim Hydes was tapped to lead Oldham County's tourism efforts in 2007, the industry was virtually nonexistent.

But over the past 16 years, she's helped turn some of the county's best assets into highly sought attractions, creating programs that have become economic drivers supporting locally owned farms and businesses.

In 2022 alone, tourism supported 449 jobs in Oldham County and brought $46 million in spending to the community — an increase of more than $12 million over the past five years.

The growth mirrors a statewide trend, with tourism generating a record $12.9 billion in economic impact and contributing nearly 92,000 jobs across Kentucky in 2022.

But while other tourism offices have larger staffs driving that growth, Oldham County has just Hydes and one other employee − a small team people say has worked hard to shine a new light on the rural area.

"No one's better at this than she is," Ellie Troutman, owner of Windy Meadows farm, said of Hydes. "She's really the hero of Oldham County."

Showcasing Oldham County's farms

Hydes owned a marketing company before she was hired as executive director at Oldham County Tourism and Conventions. And while some might take the obvious tourism route of promoting La Grange's famous trains running through downtown, one of Hydes' earliest projects was focused elsewhere: Oldham's farms.

"My goal is always 'what can I do here that I can't get anywhere else?'" she said.

Oldham County is home to more than 50,000 acres of farmland, with winding roads that curve through groves of trees and lush green hills.

Today, Hydes' tourism programs offer 15 different farm and garden tour experiences, where people can see bison, thoroughbred racehorses, dairy cows and more.

Hydes plans tours and even trip itineraries for groups of 10 or more, with her largest tour comprising more than 140 people.

No details of the tours are left out. Hydes chooses locations and activities based on what people are interested in, from horses and bourbon to Hallmark movies and bison. She takes photos while customers are on the tours, so they can enjoy the experiences. And she arranges boxed lunches or buffets for larger groups.

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Each location on Hydes' tours is a working farm, where owners and workers take time out of their schedules to lead visits through their facilities, sharing their decades of knowledge with the public.

Guests are encouraged to ask questions and interact with animals. Petting a horse or three is practically mandatory. And farms earn 100% of the money spent on the experiences.

Now the "farm tour capital of Kentucky," more than 11,000 visitors take four tours in Oldham County annually, including people from Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and even Texas.

Windy Meadows horse farm is the most popular farm tour destination. The farm is home to a wide variety of horses, including some competition champions and even one Hallmark movie star.

Windy Meadows also takes in horses that have been surrendered by owners who are unable to care for them.

Troutman, the farm's owner, said she leads more than 100 tours each year, which she and Hydes agree are different every time.

Some days the tours change depending on which horses are at the barn. Other times, groups have specific requests Hydes and Troutman can build the tour around.

"It really is a great way to educate a lot of people," Troutman said.

At Harvest Moon Farm and Harvest Home Dairy, owners Robert and Angela Klingenfus have been welcoming tourists since Hydes started her program in 2012.

The Kingenfuses have owned and operated Harvest Moon Farm since 1972, where they grow feed for their dairy cows and compost the animals' manure, preventing most methane produced by the cows to escape into the atmosphere.

The day before a Courier Journal reporter visited, three female triplet calves were born at the farm – odds for which are 1 in 100,000 births. Despite being busy with their usual farm work and the additional task of keeping an eye on the claves, the Klingenfuses took time to explain how they care for newborns and went through the process of raising their cows.

(On tours, they even let visitors milk one. Robert Klingenfus said one of his favorite tours with with a woman who was blind, who he said enjoyed touching and interacting with the cows.)

Kentucky is home to about 350 dairy farms, a number that's declined over the past two decades as larger commercial dairies put family-owned operations out of business. But Robert Klingenfus said the industry makes his family happy, despite its challenges. And the farm's owners have expanded into cheese and yogurt production over the past decade to bring in new income.

Hydes has also played a role in growing that business by connecting the Klingenfuses with with La Vine Wine Bar in La Grange, which now serves Harvest Moon's cheese.

Expanding tourism to Oldham's parks and history

Hydes' tourism work hasn't stopped with farms.

She recently got Oldham County added to the National Park Service's Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, an auto route stretching from Pennsylvania to the Pacific Ocean.

Hydes said she wants to revitalize the county's parks and create more activities for kids, so she created an offshoot of the trail with a junior explorer program that takes visitors to seven Oldham parks.

Almost the size of a newspaper, the eight-page activity program teaches kids about fossils, plants and animals, as well as the history of Lewis and Clark's journey. Participants visit each park and do activities such as word searches and fill-in-the-blanks, then can turn in completed programs at the tourism office to earn an official Oldham County junior explorer pin.

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Hydes said the National Park Service was so impressed with the program, the agency asked for copies to show other communities interested in creating their own offshoots of the trail.

Oldham County will also soon be part of the Kentucky Black History Trail, a project spanning six counties that was funded using the state's American Rescue Plan allocation.

For Hydes, building up tourism hasn't been about bragging rights or economic success (though the numbers are rewarding). It's about supporting a rural community and teaching visitors about a way of life, a kind of place they may have never encountered before.

"I'm an educator at heart," she said.

Reach reporter Kate Marijolovic at kmarijolovic@gannett.com or on Twitter @kmarijolovic.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: How this rural Kentucky county built a thriving tourism industry