Posts Tagged With: Audubon State Park and Museum

Owensboro, KY. March 19

Museum at John James Audubon State Park

“Rain Rain Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day” we sang as we drove from Paducah KY to Henderson KY to Owensboro KY. It worked, sort of. The rain that was supposed to start at 10 and be thunderstorms at 1 PM held off until after our outdoor activities. It helped that we modified our schedule also. We dropped a nature conservancy site with a trail to a funny rock along the Trail of Tears. Instead we just drove to Henderson for the major activity of the day, the John James Audubon State Park and Museum.

Ohio RIver near Henderson KY

Henderson KY was an early town on the Ohio River, part of the Cherokee Nation. European settlers, Richard Henderson prominent among them, came to the area to settle and Kentucky became the 15th state admitted into the Union. Agriculture was and is important in the area and in 1810, John James Audubon moved his young family here to operate a mercantile business. Initial success eventually turned into business failure, but Audubon lived here from 1810 to 1819.

Audubon had developed an interest in art and birds at an early age. During his time in Henderson, he spent considerable time hunting and stuffing birds and perfecting his artistic technique. After his financial failure, he decided to devote his efforts to produce the monumental work “Birds of America”. This work was the first life-sized realistic drawings of North American birds along with their natural settings. It took Audubon until 1838 to see the book printed.

Along the way, Audubon and his wife Lucy worked jobs such as dance and art teacher, naturalist, and giving lectures. He exhibited his work in the U.S. and overseas and eventually gathered sufficient praise and backing from Europeans to allow the work to proceed. His drawings were engraved in scrupulous detail and then hand colored individually. Each page was 39.5” tall and 28.5” wide. He utilized assistants, including his children, to gather specimens and draw background settings. The effort was all-encompassing and there were periods of time when he would not see his wife for several years as he went to Europe and traveled around the U.S. to get specimens. He continued his travels almost until his death in 1851.

Audubon was born in Haiti in 1785 and returned to France due to his fathers concerns over a possible slave insurrection. His father sent him to America at age 18 where his father had purchased land northwest of Philadelphia near Valley Forge. It was here that he met his wife Lucy, daughter of a neighbor. He died in New York and Lucy ended up selling his belongings and engraving plates to fend off bankruptcy. Today, however, most of what is remembered of Audubon is his monumental influence on ornithology and natural history.

Blue Crane by John James Audubon

Obviously this is a very brief summary of his life and his impact. But his importance is why we stopped at Henderson to visit the museum there dedicated to his life and works. The museum is housed in a building styled after a French chateau as a nod to his French heritage. It was built during the 1930s after civic minded local women raised the funds for an Audubon Museum: the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration provided the labor. Once again, no pictures allowed but we did buy a postcard of one of his works to reproduce here to demonstrate the detail included in his drawings. The museum also had two 15 minute videos on Audubon and a wing dedicated to his life’s history and drawings.

Hiking at Audubon State Park in KY

Turtles at Audubon State Park

Before the museum tour, we spent an hour walking around the park trails. As you know we are not birders, but it was pleasant to listen to the birds calling back and forth to each in their spring mating ritual. The parks in KY do not charge admission-nice. We did observe several Eagle Scout projects to replace bridges and boardwalks.

Driving Kentucky back roads

The drive to Henderson took us once again on two lane roads. Of course many roads are smooth and well-maintained. The ones that are not are more interesting and those seem to be the ones we frequently find on back roads. The lack of shoulders was the most notable occurrence. Once we coming upon the top of a rise in the road when we saw the top of a large farm tractor coming towards us. At 55 mph, it was a challenge to not go off the road as the tractor did its best to keep its large wheels on the grass and just a little bit onto our lane. Another time we came up to a bridge just as a truck pulling a boat trailer came off the bridge, with the wheels of the trailer solidly in our lane. Another narrow escape.

Ed and Chris

Epilogue: Snippets on Life in America from Chris
Day 4: Cracker Barrel: biscuits, please. Dunkin Donuts: glazed chocolate donut and coffee. Panera: soup and salad. McDonald’s: egg McMuffin. Predictability is sometimes good when one is traveling.