Falmouth’s Forgotten Marketplace

Before Facebook. Before car lots. Before somebody charged you $2,000 over blue book.
We had the Jockey Ring.

That’s what they called it. Not a shop. Not a business. Just a circle of dirt between Main Street and the Main Licking Bridge, where locals traded horses in the open. No middlemen. No suits. Just buyers, sellers, and the smell of a deal.

That was our marketplace. And it was hiding in plain sight.

Back then, if you were coming into town, you didn’t sneak in on a bypass. You came over the Main Licking River and boom, right there next to the bridge was the Jockey Ring.

You didn’t need a flyer or a Facebook post. The whole town knew when someone brought a horse in. And if you crossed that bridge, you were walking through commerce.

“Jockey Ring between Main Street and the Main Licking Bridge…”
(Pendleton Place Names, NKYViews)

Repeated in Mildred Belew’s 200 Years of Pendleton County
(KYGenWeb Historical Archive)

Let’s be real. They didn’t pick that spot by accident.

That was the main artery. Horses in. Goods out. Cash moving.

It wasn’t a fancy arena. It was a functioning trade hub, smack in the flow of traffic. You couldn’t miss it. You didn’t want to.

And unlike some sterile showroom today, the Jockey Ring had reputation baked into the dirt. You try to pawn off a busted workhorse with three bad legs and a cough? People remembered. They talked.

What Were They Trading?

• Farm horses

• Riding stock

• Wagon pullers

• Sometimes mules or odd jobs

• And probably a few “you’ll get your money back on the next hill, I swear” specials

It was rural economics. Kentucky-style. No storefront. No brand. Just a handshake and a sharp eye.

Every road in and out of town used to run through that one crossing, the Licking River bridge. First a wooden span. Then suspension. Eventually steel and concrete. But always the same function.

And when traffic slowed, people talked. People dealt. That’s what made the Jockey Ring tick.

You want to talk about economic development?
Falmouth’s had it.
Built out of dirt and timing and street sense.

We had our own auction block.
And it worked just fine without permission.

Whisper One Out