Audubon and Clark (Travels in the old frontier)

Audubon fostered his image as a frontiersman

At its busiest, the Pennyrile Parkway remains a quiet highway. Kentucky built the parkways as toll roads decades ago, with the tolls funding bond payments for the system that connected its mid-sized cities. Once the state paid off the roads, the tollbooths went away. I’d rate them among my favorite roads in any state because they often lack interstate traffic and cut through terrain I might otherwise skip. 

Named for the wild mint that grows this chunk of Kentucky, the Pennyrile region aconsists of rough hills that skirt Fort Campbell and roll straight to the Ohio River. Near the highway the land is mostly farms and forest. A trio of dogs romped on the roadside, a flock of sheep grazed mechanically. Fields sported the thin green layers of delayed spring.

Further along, a committee of black vultures scavenged a fresh deer carcass. More than a dozen birds congregated. Almost two hundred years ago, John Jay Audubon painted a similar scene. The vultures in his painting feasted on a mule deer, not the white-tailed deer, but it's one of those scenes that the famed bird artist captured perfectly.

Another 50 miles of the same highway spilled into Henderson and a few crowded miles of strip malls and fast-food joints. Amid them stood a sign with a turkey, not an actual bird, but an image taken from an Audubon painting.

John J. Audubon State Park belongs to Henderson because of strong ties between Audubon and his stretch of the Ohio River. The renowned bird artist made Henderson his home and worked as a trader while painting birds in the wilderness. With its location within the Mississippi flyway, he would have captured many species in migration that would have been foreign to those on the East Coast.
I had forgotten about the Audubon park until turning to my longtime travel guide– Reader’s Digest Off the Beaten Path, a gift from my longtime travel companion– and hunted for a day-trip destination. After seeing the first weekends of spring washed away, I had enough. I had cabin fever, and Audubon sounded like a safe bet. The 800-acre park hosts a small patch of wilderness with two small lakes and miles of hiking trails.

The park’s chief attraction is its exquisite museum devoted to Audubon. Constructed in French heritage style by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, the museum has several galleries focusing on Audubon’s life, work and legacy (no photos allowed).

Museum

Despite the ubiquity of the Audubon name, the man was as much a starving artist as a celebrity touring the East Coast and England. Famous people ordered Birds of America, but Audubon had to hound many to receive payment. His sons died young and his widow Lucy faced poverty. Eventually his family had to sell off much of the original work. Hundreds of copper plates were melted down, of which about 80 survive.

The museum also boasts several Audubon personal items and an in-depth history of his family. His path to American icon is unexpected. The illegitimate son of a Frenchman, Audubon was born in the Haiti, spent his youth in France but came to the U.S. when his father sought to avoid having his son conscripted during the Napoleonic Wars.

The museum boasts a complete copy of the original printing of Birds of America. The lady running the museum told me a complete copy last sold for $12 million. More than that, the original printings of the massive books are huge. They aren’t just books; they require their own table, and flipping through the pages should be an event. Audubon drew his birds at full scale.

Every birdie's got seed

Along with the birds widely known, he painted some that have gone extinct (passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet), and some mystery never observed since. Some were immature birds of species he already painted (such as the Washington eagle, which many believe is a juvenile bald eagle) or drawing males and females of sexually dimorphic species as different species altogether.  Whether or not all the birds were actual species is immaterial - Audubon set the standard for bird artists.

Any Audubon facility would be incomplete without actual birds. The museum includes small indoor nature center with an art gallery, some stuffed fauna and a large bird observation area with feeders visited by yellow finches, red-winged blackbirds, titmice, sparrows and dozens more. The museum tower was also constructed with spots for bird nests.

Grapevines

Leaving the museum, I hiked around Wilderness Lake, a quiet pond on the hilly grounds. The forest was notable for its giant grapevines that reached high into the trees, the vines wider than a human arm.

While hiking, I hoped to spot my own birds. With no leaves sprouting, I easily spotted woodpeckers cracking into tree trunks for grubs. For the most part, my mind played tricks in the woods. A stunted branch high in a spindly street arched like a roosting owl.

Although high on birds and Audubon stylish depictions, I had too much daylight left to turn around. I couldn’t come this far and not drive into Indiana. I couldn't come this far and skip the attractions further north.

A mile from the park, Henderson gave way to twin spans above acres of wetlands and mud flats. Crossing the Ohio River, I couldn't stop looking at the rusty patches on the bridge beams. Indiana greeted motorists with a string of traffic lights without synchronization. Evidence of Evansville soon faded into farmland and occasional town-sized factories. I hadn’t driven across Midwest farm country in ages. It was too chilly to roll down the windows and enjoy the scenery, but I still enjoyed the scenery and serenity.

Forty-seven miles later, I veered left for Vincennes, one-time capitol of Indiana Territory and site of Fort Sackville, one of the oldest European settlements west of the Appalachians. Around a few muddy blocks, I came upon a Greek structure more prominent than any other building in Vincennes.

George Rogers Clark Memorial

Memorial interior

George Rogers Clark is one of the lesser-known heroes of the American Revolution, winning an unheralded battle that paved the way for American expansion beyond the original 13 colonies. Clark’s statue stands in the center of the monument. Murals depicting the treaties with local tribes that opened the Northwest Territory to colonization fill the walls of the bright chamber illuminated by skylights.

George Rogers Clark isn't even the best-known member of his family; his younger brother was William Clark of Lewis & Clark fame. William has monuments across the country, but Vincennes belongs to George.

Mural

That the Wabash River ran high from recent rains felt appropriate, since Clark and group of frontiersmen crossed flooded plains, sometimes in water up to their chests, to take Fort Sackville and rally support for the colonies from the French settlers (and neutrality from the local Indian tribes). Near the river looms a statue of Francis Vigo, an Italian merchant from St. Louis who served as an informant and financier for Clark. Otherwise the plaza was quiet, the day to blustery for all but those who intended to visit Vincennes.

On the same grounds as the GRC memorial stands Indiana’s oldest Catholic parish, with a cathedral dating to 1826 and a parish history stretching to 1749.

Lincoln Memorial Trail starts on the Wabash River’s west bank in Illinois. A block from the site of Lincoln’s entry into the state where he made his name stands a a sculpture group depicting Lincoln, other travelers and livestock march deeper into Illinois.

Lincoln Memorial Trail

The 21-year-old Lincoln came with his father and split from the family deeper into Illinois, forging his own path. The family followed the Buffalo Trace across southern Indiana seeking prosperity in the new state. After a few blustery pictures, I walked back to Vincennes, the Clark memorial and stately cathedral impossible to ignore.

Vincennes seems like a frequent field trip destination for Indiana schoolchildren. For adults, I see the town less as a destination than a stop when heading somewhere else. Arriving in late afternoon, I ran into too much history for the remains of Sunday.

Grouseland

State historic sites popped up on every block– the Sugar Loaf Indian mound, the territorial capitol building, Fort Knox II (the staging site for the battle of Tippecanoe), the former state bank and Grouseland, home of Indiana Territorial Governor -later one-month president – William Henry Harrison. At the time, grouse were plentiful around the region, hence the name.

Mention the American West and few people think of Indiana. But think of a time when the France parting with their vast claims in America seemed laughable. The new country ended here. The history gives Vincennes a charm missing in many small river towns. Time might have passed by this region, but its blocks capture a point in time when this country was young and unsettled.

George Rogers Clark Memorial viewed from Illinois