Photo, left to right, Dirt Artisans founder/owner Chad Irey with Covington Business Retention and Expansion Manager Patrick Duffy. Photo by Sam Greenhill. 

A love for nature transforms a park into a ‘regional treasure’

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of five articles naming the winners of the 2025 Authenti-CITY awards given by the City of Covington at a ceremony last Tuesday to mark the National Economic Development Week. More about the awards can be found at the bottom of this article

COVINGTON, Ky. – Runners, hikers, and mountain bikers, you can thank Dirt Artisans and its founder/owner Chad Irey for the cool trails you traverse in Covington’s Devou Park.

Partnering with City officials, Irey’s Dirt Artisans has either designed, built, or supervised construction of most of the trail system in Covington’s 700-acre Devou Park.

Last year Dirt Artisans constructed an additional 3 miles to Devou Park’s Backcountry Trails, extending the total trail system to about 16 miles and making it the longest urban trail network in the region and among the top five overall in terms of length.

Irey, who developed a love for nature as a child, put in significant volunteer hours designing and building trails before he turned his hobby into a business.

Today, Dirt Artisans is a national leader in surface trail design and construction for their contributions to community and conservation, and adds a coveted Covington Authenti-CITY award to its list of well-earned recognitions.

“The trails that Dirt Artisans has constructed have transformed Devou Park into a regional treasure that welcomes thousands of visitors to Covington each year,” said Covington Business Retention and Expansion Manager Patrick Duffy. “We’re proud to recognize Dirt Artisans as the recipient of a 2025 Authenti-CITY award.”

About the awards: The first-annual Authenti-CITY awards were unveiled by Covington’s fun and irreverent Economic Development team in 2021 to celebrate National Economic Development Week in an off-the-wall way.

There were no rules and no criteria – just staffers getting together after hours (maybe over a few drinks, maybe not) and debating fiercely about what businesses, places, events, people and organizations most “kept it real” in The Cov. The fervor had to do with this: Narrowing down the massive list (because, you know, Covington is such a cool place).

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