John James Audubon

On Friday, December 1, 1820, this naturalist and artist landed nearby, on his way by flatboat from Cincinnati to New Orleans. He kept a diary and sketched animals and birds seen en route. Near here, he saw gulls, cormorants, "white-headed eagles," grackles, purple finches, teal parakeets, sand hill cranes and numerous types of geese. These sketches helped form the basis for parts of his monumental book of engravings, Birds in America, published 1826-38.