Morehead, the seat of Rowan county, is located on Triplett Creek. Settlers arrived by the early part of the nineteenth century and a post office opened there as Triplett in 1817. The city of Morehead was founded in 1856, when Rowan county was formed, and named for James T. Morehead, a governor of Kentucky. The population in 1990 was 8,357.

Morehead is the home of Morehead State University.