Audubon’s Kentucky legacy

A birding (and baseball) road trip included a visit to the artist’s former home

(published 9-4-24)

Audubon Mill Park, Henderson, Ky.

I had just retired, with no immediate plans for travel. The calendar was open, primed for an adventure. But where?

The answer, I realized, was right in my lap. For a week I’d been reading a new book by Kenn Kaufman, savoring every page. “The Birds That Audubon Missed” was pointing me south, to Kentucky!

The exclamation point is sincere, as I’d been wanting to explore a few things in the Bluegrass State for some time. Birding and baseball things. Suddenly the opportunity was staring me down, generously framed by my wife as a retirement and 65^th birthday celebration trip.

I had two destinations in mind: Henderson and Louisville, both along the Ohio River in western Kentucky. To get in position, we followed Indiana Route 41 all the way south to Evansville, another river town.

The best road trips, of course, include unplanned stops.

Turn at the turkey: the state park entrance in Henderson

Just before leaving Glen Ellyn, I grabbed my copy of “Roadside Baseball.” With Catherine at the wheel, I turned to the chapter on Indiana and learned about a historical marker, in Nyesville, for Chicago Cubs pitcher and Hall of Famer Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown. The memorial, on the site of the Brown family farm, was only slightly out of our way. We found it, signed the guestbook and took some snapshots. Legions of Cubbie fans had clearly preceded us.

In Evansville, fried catfish was the meal of choice at Robert’s on the River, where we watched several innings of the MLB All-Star game at the bar. I asked the proprietor if our dinner might be from the nearly mile-wide tributary flowing just outside the restaurant, but he didn’t think so.

The next day, just across the Ohio, would be all about birds and a certain naturalist with a mixed reputation.

John James Audubon spent a decade in Henderson, from 1810 to 1819. He was not a famous bird artist at the time, just a shopkeeper and later a failed mill owner on the American frontier. Some of his days in Henderson, however, were devoted to observing and painting the local birds. A few of the pieces would ultimately land in his oversized four-volume masterwork, “The Birds of America.” 

Yellow-throated Warbler by Matt Misewicz

I was eager to visit Audubon State Park, for the birding trails and for the museum housing the largest displayed collection of Audubon art and artifacts.

Arriving early, we headed up Warbler Road, where it was easy to imagine “JJA” walking the same path more than 200 years before. July birding can be a little slow in a leafy old-growth forest but not on this day. We saw and heard plenty, though I confess that the Merlin app for sound ID was a godsend.

Hike highlights included Pileated Woodpecker and Yellow-throated Warbler, two species that can be tricky to find in the Chicago region. Acadian Flycatcher, Carolina Wren, and Tufted Titmouse were abundant. The chickadees looked just like “ours” but sounded different—they were the Carolina variety, not black-capped.

Opened to the public in 1938, the Audubon Museum is inside a beautiful WPA-funded building of French Norman architecture, reflecting its namesake’s heritage. The artist’s full life (1785-1851) is well documented including his formative years in Kentucky, where he found his artistic calling. A short film in the theater provides a helpful overview.

Visitors can view Audubon’s original artwork, including the rare “Birds of America.” A first edition sold at auction in 2018 for nearly $10 million. Also on exhibit are two copper engraving plates—less than 100 of the original 435 still exist—and Audubon’s painting supplies.

I wasn’t surprised to see the new Kaufman book in the museum’s excellent gift shop. It is not an Audubon biography but rather a focused look at the artist’s contributions to ornithology in the early to mid-1800s, and how he pursued his audacious goal of painting and describing every American bird.

Kaufman describes what bird finding must have been like in the era before binoculars, when the discovery and naming of new species literally went with the territory. Bird science was inexact and at times even fraudulent. Identification errors were common, and a handful of species were overlooked.

It seems hard to believe, but as Kaufman points out, Audubon apparently failed to distinguish Caspian Tern from Royal Tern—he assumed they were the same. Caspian Tern is therefore absent from “Birds of America.” Gray-cheeked Thrush and Snail Kite are also missing.

John James Audubon Museum

Kaufman rightly calls out Audubon for being a slave owner and white supremacist. These unforgiveable flaws in Audubon’s character have risen to the forefront in recent years, leading numerous Audubon-branded birding and conservation organizations to change their names. I didn’t notice any content in the museum about Audubon’s racism.  

Likewise, the City of Henderson, a couple miles from the park, betrayed no evidence of “cancel culture” with respect to its renowned former citizen. Audubon’s legacy—his artistic legacy—is central to the city’s marketing efforts. Visitors are invited to “Discover your nature,” and a white SUV outside the Henderson Tourist Commission’s welcome center is wrapped in colorful graphics from “Birds of America.” An Audubon-branded car dealer sits across from the state park.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch along the Ohio River in Audubon Mill Park, home to an impressive bronze statue of Audubon and a remnant from his failed grist mill.  Around town, a self-guided “sculpture tour” features 15 cast-bronze birds by artist Raymond Graf, each inspired by an actual Audubon painting.

Audubon State Park Wetlands

Downtown Henderson merited more of our time, but the lure of real birds was impossible to resist. 

Next stop: Audubon Wetlands, a 650-acre annex to Audubon State Park with an outstanding boardwalk trail. The birding here was good even on a hot afternoon but would surely be world class on a spring migration morning. Come to think of it, next time, I will play the state park’s 9-hole golf course and stay in one of the lakeside cabins. There are 1,400 acres in all and six miles of trails.   

On our second morning in Evansville, before heading over to Louisville, a diamond gem beckoned. “Roadside Baseball” informed me that Bosse Field is the third-oldest ballpark in America still hosting professional baseball, surpassed only by Fenway and Wrigley. The hometown Evansville Otters were away but we stopped by the field anyway. A friendly staff member was happy to let us inside to look around and even offered to open the gift shop! We passed on buying souvenirs but promised to return one day to witness a game at this minor league landmark, built in 1915.

In Louisville, two hours east, the baseball hits kept coming. My self-indulgent agenda naturally included the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory (loved it), followed by a Triple A game at Slugger Field. In a happy coincidence, the Louisville Bats were playing the Columbus Clippers, the top farm team of my beloved Cleveland Guardians. Game highlights included a lead-off home run by José Tena, three Great Egret flyovers and lots of twittering Chimney Swifts.

Final score: Clippers 6, Bats 4, Road Trip 10.

Copyright 2024 by Jeff Reiter. All rights reserved.