One man left a particularly big mark on Audubon State Park in Henderson
HENDERSON, Ky. – Twenty-five years ago, Judy Jenkins wrote a feature article about Leo G. Beckett, a fellow who left his mark on Audubon State Park.
She wrote the article for The Gleaner of July 7, 1998, to commemorate the park’s 60th anniversary. So I guess this month is the 85th anniversary.
The park had its beginnings nearly nine decades ago, however. The first public mention of the local park came in The Gleaner of Feb. 8, 1934, which reported State Park Commissioner Emma Guy Cromwell’s acceptance of an invitation to visit.
Cromwell and the wife of the governor arrived Feb. 17, 1934, to check out prospects for the proposed state park.
A federal program aimed at economic stimulus had recently become available, under which the federal government would pay for the labor and materials to develop state parks if the state would administer the program and local residents would provide at least 300 acres of land.
It wasn’t until July 10 that The Gleaner reported the park was assured because a telegram from Cromwell the previous day said the proposal had been accepted by federal authorities.
The donors of land by that point were about 100 acres from David Clark, another 100 acres from Col. Alex Major of St. Louis and his sister Kate Major Campbell of Miami, and 75 acres from Henry P. Barret and his sister, Mrs. Samuel G. Gant of New York City.
Camp Cromwell of the Civilian Conservation Corps opened Oct. 4, 1934, at the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Watson Lane. The men housed there helped build Audubon State Park with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration. The CCC camp closed Nov. 13, 1941.
The death of Audubon's first engineer and Beckett's beginning
Beckett wasn’t the park’s first landscape engineer.
He was preceded by Raymond Pigeon, 34, who failed to negotiate a turn at Fifth and Water streets and was killed when his car plunged 40 feet over the riverbank, according to the Evansville Courier of Oct. 29, 1936.
Beckett didn’t get here until July of 1937, according to the 1998 article. He had finished his third year at the University of Cincinnati but times were tough, prompting him to go to work for the National Park Service to earn a steady paycheck. He was only 22 years old when he arrived in Henderson. Before that he had spent two years helping develop General Butler State Park.
Probably his biggest contribution to the park was designing the garden in front of the park museum. He went to Lexington to pick out four pin oaks to plant there.
“They were brought back here on a railroad flat car, and we had to have a crane to set them in the ground,” he told Jenkins.
“Two of those oaks have survived the decades, and Beckett takes personal pride in them, as he does in the general layout of that front garden,” Jenkins wrote. (Those two trees remain standing.) “He says the museum architect originally had given that section an awkward design because he was dealing with an adjacent gully. Beckett persuaded him to build a retaining wall and fill in with soil so the formal lawn could have a balanced shape.”
He also talked the architect into reconfiguring the Tea House so it faced the parking lot. The original idea was to have it at an angle.
Beckett placed his imprint on the entrance to the park as well. It was his idea to have a divided entrance onto U.S. 41, and he also had input into the design of the old ranger station at the park entrance.
Beckett was accused of destroying historic pier. He fought back
Most of the stonework throughout the park was done with rock quarried from outcroppings on local farms. Beckett said field foreman Shep Latta was great at finding the needed stone. But Beckett, in his leisure time, found another source.
He was an avid boater and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He was out in his boat one day when he spied on the Indiana shore piles of huge blocks of stone that had been used to build the piers of the original 1885 railroad bridge. All but one of those piers were demolished in mid-1933 after the current bridge was completed.
He contacted the L&N Railroad and obtained permission to salvage that stone. Henderson residents could hear the sound of dynamite shattering the stone blocks, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal of Oct. 25, 1940. That story was in error, however, and Beckett tried to set the record straight. Here’s what the C-J wrote:
“The only permanent high-water mark here on the 1937 Ohio River flood, aside from the new bridge, has been destroyed. The old concrete pier of the L&N Railroad bridge, which marked the height of the water, has been dynamited by the Camp Cromwell CCC boys.”
Beckett was stung by criticism he considered “unwarranted and entirely unfounded,” which prompted him to write a clarifying letter to The Gleaner. It was published Nov. 3, 1940.
“Apparently the author of the article did not take the time to ascertain the readily visible facts. The stone in question was the remains of a stone pier located on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, which was dismantled at the time of the construction of the existing L&N Railroad bridge several years ago.
“Most of the stone was used in the construction of the locks at Dam No. 48 (near the current riverport) and the scattered remains were recently released by the U.S. Corps of Engineers for use in the park.
“It might be of some interest to the author of the article to know that this stone is being used in the construction of the concrete spillway of the 25-acre Scenic Lake now nearing completion in Audubon Memorial State Park.
“At any rate, we would be glad to accompany that person to the riverbank and point out that their much-loved pier is still standing quite erect and undisturbed.”
Audubon planned a massive swimming pool that never came to pass
The museum at Audubon State Park opened July 16, 1938, although dedication of the museum didn’t occur until Oct. 1 of that year. Beckett was there; in fact, he drew the map of the park that was an integral part of the brochure visitors were given in the park’s earliest years.
That brochure tells of several plans that never came to pass, such as a total of 26 cabins and a swimming pool that would handle up to 1,700 people a day.
Beckett worked six years for the National Park Service in Kentucky and Tennessee. He spent most of his life in Henderson – 33 years as an engineer with Whirlpool Corp. – and married a local woman, Martha Robertson, who preceded him in death. He died Jan. 25, 2012, in Paducah at the age of 97.
100 YEARS AGO
The Henderson City Commission was considering building a saltwater swimming pool in Atkinson Park – which foreshadowed Atkinson Pool that opened July 10, 1937, according to The Gleaner of July 3, 1923. The idea was to tap a vein of salt water.
A well drilled on the riverfront near 11th Street by David R. Burbank in 1856-57 produced copious amounts of salt water. An attempt was made to develop a salt works but was unsuccessful. The well spurted for decades and in the 1880s the water was used for a spa at that location, but at that time access was too difficult for it to be commercially successful.
An article by Sudie Tuell in The Gleaner of Sept. 24, 1905, indicates the well was still flowing at that time, although it had been partially plugged. By 1923, however, the well no longer flowed.
“It is known, however, that some years ago the Burbank well was for some reason plugged up, and that on this account it may not be possible to effect a tap.”
75 YEARS AGO
The city of Henderson decided to spend $17,000 on three compactor garbage trucks, which would allow sanitation manpower to be reduced by 11 men, according to The Gleaner of July 4, 1948.
The new trucks were to be two-ton Chevrolets and each truck was to be operated by three men. They were to replace 10 trucks, which required 20 men.
“These loadpacker units will be more efficient; they will not leak and garbage will not be blown from them onto the streets,” said Commissioner of Safety T.C. “Crit” Holloway.
The Gleaner of Aug. 31 reported the new trucks would be going into service within a few days.
50 YEARS AGO
The Gleaner of July 3, 1973, reported Henderson Fiscal Court unanimously instructed County Attorney David Thomason to file suit against Circuit Court Clerk George Raber because he had not yet submitted his excess fee report for calendar year 1972.
The court gave Raber two weeks to comply before taking legal action. Fiscal court had passed a resolution in 1972 requiring officials to make their settlements by March 31 for the previous calendar year.
The Gleaner of July 10 reported Raber had turned over his 1972 report and $6,400 in excess fees.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: One man left a big mark on Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky
