Recap: My husband and I drove our Pleasure Way RV van, Sweet Van-Ella Magnolia, from the East to West Coast. On October 22, 2022, we left Midlothian, Virginia, where Ella had been in storage. We drove through West Virginia to Kentucky. Our destination was Palm Springs, California.
This Halloween, we were unexpectedly haunted—not by the tricks and treats of playful goblins and witches, but by the troubling truth of destructive development and the ugly parts of United States history.
Mammoth Cave National Park—October 31, 2022
Mammoth Cave National Park was missing from our original itinerary, but we adjusted our schedule when we saw we were going right by it. Never a good idea to drive past a National Park without stopping.
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We enjoy traveling in our Pleasure-Way RV van during the shoulder season. Little did we know, this would be our last trip in our Sweet Van-Ella. More on that in a future article. |
We arrived shortly before the visitor center closed and purchased tickets for a Mammoth Cave tour the following day. The park offers many types of tours, including a fully wheelchair-accessible tour and a limited number of self-guided tours. We lucked out because many of them were sold out, and we found space for an early one that would allow us to get on the road the following afternoon.
The campground was sparsely occupied and quiet. Our only visitors were a doe and her fawn—not skittish at all, foraging the perimeter of our campsite. (I took a video of the deer instead of a photo. I’ll upload a clip here when I have it ready.)
We built a fire and used the wifi to check in with friends and family. When my son heard where we were, he sent a link to a video he had recently watched—the animated Internet Historian movie “Man in Cave” about the 1925 two-week attempt to rescue Floyd Collins, who had been trapped in a cave. Was it a coincidence or spooky serendipity that Joe had recently seen the movie, and we just happened to visit Mammoth Cave?
“Man in Cave” had been released on Youtube just one month earlier and already had 7.8 million views. The video is currently being re-edited. I will add a link after it has been re-uploaded to Youtube.
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Ranger Josh prepared the tour group for its trip underground. |
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We explored the cave via lighted, paved walkways. |
The same limestone that makes the best Kentucky bourbon is what made Mammoth Cave the world’s largest known cave. Or, I should say, the lack of limestone made the cave when 10-15 million years ago, water running across the earth’s surface seeped through cracks deep into the ground and eroded the softer limestone away from the rigid rock walls of more than 400 miles of explored cave passages.
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After the tour, we pulled into one of the picnic areas. We made sandwiches while watching the squirrels scamper through the crunchy fallen leaves. |
Paradise, Kentucky
Our next stop was a real Halloween adventure. We went to a ghost town with a history scarier than any Stephen King novel. If you’re a John Prine fan, “Y’all know the story behind it.”
Roger’s sister is into genealogy. When she heard we would be driving through Kentucky, she suggested we visit some kinfolk graves.
Roger’s fifth-great grandparents, Leonard and Martha Stom, are buried in the McDougal Cemetery in what was once Paradise, Kentucky. In the 1800s, they ran the ferry across the Green River at Stom’s Landing. Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? At the time, Muhlenberg County was a lush, green countryside full of birds and wildlife with fish thriving in the Green River. [1]
John Prine’s song “Paradise,” tells the story of what happened next. “Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it way.”
We Googled Paradise and the McDougal Cemetery to get directions. Findagrave.com sent us down Route 176 to where Paradise used to be. But we were too late. All we found was scorched earth and a mammoth coal-fired power plant that appeared to be closed.
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A defunct coal-fired power plant is all that is left of Paradise, Kentucky. |
The Kentucky Genealogical Society describes coal mining development in Eastern Kentucky on its website.
“Along with tobacco, racehorses, and bourbon, coal has long been part of the defining narrative of Kentucky’s history. Serious coal mining in Kentucky had its modest beginning in 1820 with the opening of a commercial mine in Muhlenberg County, but it wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that coal became a significant factor in the economy of the Commonwealth. By the time of the first world war, railroads had connected mountain coal and timber operations with urban industrial centers, and the die was cast.” [2]
Strip mining in Kentucky began in 1826 near Sugar Creek. Strip mining removes a long strip of land to access coal relatively close to the surface. “A coal company that owned the rights under your land could come in with explosives and huge shovels to remove the rock and soil, haul the coal away, and pretty much leave the area looking like the surface of the moon. And the landowner had little recourse” thanks to Kentucky’s “treacherous legal instrument in effect known as the broad form deed, which gave primacy to the mineral owner over the surface owner.” [3]
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Our route from Louisville to Mammoth Cave, Paradise, and John James Audubon Park. Paradise is at the marker just east of Central City. |
In the 1900s, the Peabody Energy Company, based in St. Louis, Missouri, strip-mined the land surrounding the town of Paradise. In 1959, the Tennesee Valley Authority (TVA) began constructing the Paradise Fossil Plant. The plant burned 20,000 tons of coal every day. [4]
This coal-fired power plant rained toxic ash on the surrounding land, poisoning the river and creating a health hazard for residents. In 1967, the TVA convinced the remaining residents to move out and built the world’s largest cyclonic-fired boiler. [5]
A 2010 Abt Associates study attributed 93 deaths per year to fine particle pollution from the Paradise Fossil Plant. [4]
In 2019, the TVA board voted to close the coal-fired power plant by December 2020 because it was no longer cost-effective. [6]
Research tells us that doing nothing can sometimes be more economically beneficial than tearing up the earth and destroying waterways for short-term commercial gain. The waste created and human lives lost in exchange for a fossil fuel plant that lasted just 120 years boggles my mind. Imagine what Paradise might look like today had it been left alone.
In response to environmental disasters like Paradise, the United States established laws and agencies to protect us from the dramatic degradation committed by past resource extraction and development. Today, when considering applications for resource extraction and development permits, agencies compare the intrinsic value of the land—the value the land has in its pristine state—to the financial gain of the resource being extracted (lumber, gold, oil, coal, or other minerals.) In Alaska, for example, a historically productive watershed left intact will contribute millions of dollars to the local economy every year for centuries via the salmon it will produce.
In simpler terms, if we leave the river alone and do nothing, it will provide a living to many people for a long time.
Back to our story—the cemetery was supposed to be on top of a hill near the plant, but we never found it. This place gave me the cold creeps, and we wanted to get to our next destination before dark. We drove around the area, ignoring the WARNING-KEEP OUT signs. I felt like we were in an episode of Scooby Doo, driving our van to a deserted old factory to solve a mystery. Eventually, we decided to scram.
John James Audubon Center and Campground
We were disappointed we didn’t find McDougal Cemetery but had to keep moving. We checked into our campsite at the John James Audubon State Park and took advantage of the shower facilities and fire ring. Again, we were in the shoulder season, and the campground was quiet, just right for our unlux travel style.
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The sun rose from behind the dam at our campground in Henderson, Kentucky. |
In the twilight of the morning, I peeked out our rear window to see deer grazing on green grass in the foggy morning light. A sign. It’s going to be a good day. I had recently taken an interest in birding, and we were to visit the Audubon Museum and Nature Center. Supported by Friends of Audubon, the museum houses one of the largest collections of original Audubon paintings, prints, and artifacts.
To be honest, I didn’t know much about John James Audubon. I had heard about the National Audubon Society, but that’s about it. Juneau has an active Audubon Society. (You’d better arrive early to purchase their nagoon berry jam at the annual Public Market.)
John James Audubon was the best-known wildlife artist of his time. However, The National Audubon Society says he is also “a complex and troubling character who did despicable things even by the standards of his day. He was contemporaneously and posthumously accused of—and most certainly committed—both academic fraud and plagiarism. But far worse, he enslaved Black people and wrote critically about emancipation. He stole human remains and sent the skulls to a colleague who used them to assert that whites were superior to non-whites.” [7]
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The Audubon Park and Museum are an oasis from the busy highway just outside its border. |
Ironically, evidence suggests that John James Audubon, born in Haiti, was the son of his father and a mixed-race housekeeper. He was also a privileged fellow who went to France at the start of the Haitian Revolution and, years later, to the United States to avoid conscription in Napolean’s military.
Audubon worked as an unsuccessful businessman who bought and sold enslaved people. He operated a store in Henderson, Kentucky, where his family lived from 1810 until he was jailed for bankruptcy in 1819. Eventually, he published The Birds of America, 453 life-size paintings of North American birds. Audubon’s realistic paintings portrayed birds in natural poses and often included flora of the bird’s habitat. [8]
The National Audubon Society considered changing its name in light of Audubon’s racist views; however, its board of directors decided against it and announced the rationale behind the decision in a press release dated March 16, 2023. [9]
Three board members resigned in protest. [10]
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We enjoyed the vibrancy of autumn colors as we traveled from East to West in our RV van. |
I was taken aback by Audubon’s racist past. I only learned of it when I began additional research for this article more than five months after my visit. Neither Roger nor I recall this information as part of the exhibit at the museum. I can’t say it wasn’t there, but I can’t imagine I would miss or forget something as important as that.
Would we have included a stop here had we known? In hindsight, I am glad we stopped because if we hadn’t, we might never have known the truth about Audubon. We never regret learning the truth, no matter how troublesome.
Notes:
[1] Jenn Shockley, “A Creepy Ghost Town In Kentucky, Paradise Is The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of,” Only in Your State, June 7, 2020. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/kentucky/ghost-town-ky/
[2] Marsha Waggoner, “Loading Sixteen Tons: Tracing Your Kentucky Coal Mining Ancestors,” Kentucky Genealogy Society, accessed April 7, 2023, https://kygs.org/genealogy-tips/eastern-ky-coal-mining-records.html
[3] Frank Boyett, “Fifty Years Ago, Strip Mining Talk Rippled Through Henderson County,” Henderson Gleaner, USA Today Network, May 6, 2017, https://www.thegleaner.com/story/news/columnists/frank-boyett/2017/05/06/fifty-years-ago-strip-mining-talk-rippled-through-henderson-county/101255312/
[4] “Death and Disease Attributable to Fine Particle Pollution from the Paradise Fossil Plant” Paradise Fossil Plant, Global Energy Monitor Wiki, accessed April 7, 2023, https://www.gem.wiki/Paradise_Fossil_Plant#Background
[5] “Paradise, Kentucky,” Wikipedia, accessed April 1, 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise,_Kentucky
[6] “Paradise Fossil Plant,” Tennessee Valley Authority, accessed April 18, 2023, https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power-system/coal/paradise-fossil-plant
[7] “John James Audubon A Complicated History,” National Audubon Society, accessed April 10, 2023, https://www.audubon.org/content/john-james-audubon
[8] Bill Chappell, “Audubon Faces a Backlash After Deciding to Keep Name That Evokes a Racist Enslaver,” National Public Radio, April 10, 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/18/1164293652/audubon-faces-a-backlash-after-deciding-to-keep-name-that-evokes-a-racist-enslav#:~:text=The%20first%20to%20ditch%20the,it’ s%20now%20called%20Nature%20Forward
[9] “National Audubon Society Announces Decision to Retain Current Name, “National Audubon Society, March 16, 2023, https://www.audubon.org/news/national-audubon-society-announces-decision-retain-current-name
[10] Robin Bravender, “Backlash hits Audubon after Refusal to Drop Slave-holder’s Name,” Politico, March 16, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/16/audubon-board-members-resign-00087423
© Copyright 2023. Patricia E. Harding. All rights reserved.