John James Audubon State Park is located on U. S. Route 41 in

Henderson, Kentucky Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the ...

, just south of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. Its inspiration is

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin; April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was an American self-trained artist, naturalist, and ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornithology turned into a plan to make a complete pictoria ...

, the

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

, naturalist,

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, and slaveowner who resided in Henderson from 1810 to 1819 when Henderson was a

frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

. The park was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1988. With . Most of the park has been dedicated as a state nature preserve by the

Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves is an agency of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States dedicated to the protection of Kentucky's natural heritage. The agency's primary focus is protecting rare and endangered species habitat. It o ...

, which also added a 650 acre addition in 2016 through its Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund program. This is 1 of 3 state parks in Kentucky that will be in the path of totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse.

History

operated small businesses in Henderson, Kentucky with mixed success. Nine enslaved people worked for the Audubon family at the time, until he needed money, then he sold them.The largest Audubon group yet is changing its name, rebuking an enslaver
, published July 28, 2022 in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', accessed August 17, 2022 His passion for exploring the forests of the region and sketching and painting wildlife while in Henderson, particularly birds, has been well documented. In 1934, the Wolf Hills area in Henderson was selected for a new state park (meeting the minimum 300 acres needed for park development). Susan Towles, a Henderson librarian, supplied the necessary research and documentation to establish a historic connection to the land and Audubon. In September 1934, a

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

(CCC) base Camp Cromwell (named in honor of the Director of the Kentucky State Parks, Emma Guy Cromwell) was established off US 41 near John James Audubon State Park. After the 300-acres was procured for park development, approximately 200

CCC CCC may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canada's Capital Cappies, the Critics and Awards Program in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada * ''Capcom Classics Collection'', a 2005 compilation of arcade games for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox * CCC, the pro ...

, Company 1540 employees were dispatched from their West Virginia base to Henderson where they were joined by others including several Henderson natives. Over the next four years the CCC drained swamps, build two lakes and developed trails and roads. With the help of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA), the park shelters, the Tea House (presently the park office), and the Audubon Museum were constructed from local stone and mill work. The entire project cost approximately $500,000. Progress on the park was not always smooth. There were long delays caused by lack of funds and disagreements over the park's focus. Henderson attorney and businessman Gibney Oscar Letcher helped guide the project along; working among the

WPA WPA may refer to: Computing *Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard *Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing * Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada * Windows Performance An ...

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, Kentucky Department of Parks, local contractors and suppliers, the Audubon Park Committee and the Audubon family descendants. The Wilderness Lake was completed in the spring of 1938 but the work continued slowly on the Tea House and gardens, the recreational lake, the roads and the cottages. The Tea House was completed in June 1940 and served three meals daily until December 1941. In the spring of 1941, the cottages were completed and the recreational lake was excavated and filled. That completed the work under the federal New Deal programs. After the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

, December 7, 1941, Kentucky and the nation prepared for war. Camp Cromwell was converted into a Naval Cadet Aviation Training School during the war and supervised by Evansville College (presently the University of Evansville). After WWII, attention returned to John James Audubon State Park. Beginning in 1948 and lasting until 1955, a program of restoration and construction was carried out. Some of the projects completed were new museum lighting installation; picnic area, bathhouse and beach, landscaping, parking, lake dam and shelter construction. From 1960 to 1969 another $500,000 was invested in the park with construction of a camping area and nine-hole golf course. Additional land was acquired bringing the park to nearly 700 acres. New picnic shelters and employee housing were also constructed. The park was listed on the

in 1988. In 1990 the state General Assembly allocated $2.5 million for a thorough renovation of the museum and the additional nature center to promote the study of nature. In the spring of 1992, the largest renovation in the museum's 54-year history began and in December 1993 the refurbished and expanded museum reopened.

Audubon Museum

The museum design is French heritage. The style also permitted the inclusion of small niches in the museum tower for nesting birds. Alice Tyler, widow of J. J. Audubon's great-grandson, Leonard Sanford Tyler, had been in contact with Susan Towles during the park's development. It was her wish that the large personal collection of Audubon material in her possession be placed on loan in the new Audubon Museum. Mrs. Tyler shipped her collection to Henderson in the spring of 1938 and the museum opened July 16, 1938. The Tyler collection was later purchased in 1994 through numerous donations made to the Friends of Audubon, as well as contributions from the Preston Foundation and the

Kentucky State Parks Maintained by the Kentucky Department of Parks, Kentucky's system of 49 state parks has been referred to as "the nation's finest" and experiences more repeat business annually than those of any other U.S. state. The state's diverse geography provid ...

. Today, the museum proudly displays one of the world's largest collections of original Audubon art that made the wildlife artist a legend. But it is the personal artifacts and memorabilia that portray the often difficult life of Audubon - more starving artist than artistic success. The museum's four exhibit halls chronicle Audubon's life, including his 1810–1819 residence in Henderson, Kentucky. Highlights of the collection include the American Bald Eagle oil, a four-volume edition of the ''Birds of America'', a personal seal, handwritten journals, the silver service Audubon sent from England to his devoted wife, Lucy (replacing the service set that was lost during bankruptcy).

Description

Audubon Park consists of approximately , primarily hilly forests that include dedicated by the

with

old-growth An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

trees and trails. Highlights include the internationally acclaimed Audubon Museum that features numerous valuable examples of Audubon art as well as a gift shop and nature center; a nine-hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

course; six cottages; a

campground A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for camping, overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight u ...

that accommodates tents and campers; a manmade fishing lake with rental pedal boats; of forest hiking trails; tennis courts; four picnic shelters; and playground. A variety of year-round, interpretive programs are conducted under the direction of a full-time naturalist and museum educator. Programs focus on art history, as well as native plants, animals, conservation and recycling. Audubon Park receives local support from a

not-for-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, the Friends of Audubon.

References

External links

John James Audubon State Park

Friends of Audubon

Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves

Video on the Audubon Museum from WKU PBS
{{authority control State parks of Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Henderson County, Kentucky Nature centers in Kentucky Museums in Henderson County, Kentucky

Audubon The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

Art museums and galleries in Kentucky Protected areas established in 1934 Protected areas of Henderson County, Kentucky Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky 1934 establishments in Kentucky Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky Henderson, Kentucky