Audubon's Stay on The Cache
(excerpt from the book "Pulaski County Illinois" by the Pulaski Board of Comm)
J. J. Audubon's first of two stays at the mouth of the Cache River came in late 1810.
Audubon, born neither wealthy nor with financial backing to pursue his interests as a naturalist, was forced to
pursue an additional line of work. Around 1810, he was proprietor of a retail store in Henderson, Kentucky.
Audubon and his partner, Rozier, were not pleased with the amount of trade they were able to generate at Henderson
and decided to more their enterprise to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. They loaded their wares on a flatboat and, after
three days of floating down the Ohio from Henderson, they pulled their boat into the Cache River to spend the night.
They learned the Mississippi was covered with ice and could not be traveled. Audubon and his company pitched a
camp, spending the following several weeks at the site.
They found the area abounding in waterfowl - mallards, teal, mergansers, and wild geese. Small flocks of green
parakeet roosted in the hollow trunks of sycamore. Camping nearby was a group of Shawnee, and Audubon traveled
with a group headed downriver. Before reaching the mouth of the Ohio, the hunting party left their canoes and crossed
a swampy area to Swan Lake, Kentucky, where they saw hundreds of swans.
Audubon's next trip to the area at the mouth of the Cache was 13 years later, in October 1823. Audubon had spent
some time in Mississippi as a part-time art teacher and had also made some money selling his artwork. He wanted,
however, to return to the retail trade business and made arrangements to return to the retails trade business and
made arrangements to return to Shippingport, Kentucky, with his son Victor. On their journey up-river, J. J. and
Victor stopped in Trinity. The records suggest that Audubon was linked to the Cache River town through kinship,
as a relative of his wife, Nicholas Berthend (also spelled Bertherd) was an investor in the town of Trinity, and
in Shippingport. Victor Audubon worked for Berthend.
Audubon's account of his stay in Trinity contains the only record of where the various establishments were located
in the town. "We slept at the tavern," he wrote, "and the next morning prepared for our journey
and were joined by our companions, although it was past twelve before we crossed the creek."
John James Audubon was born in 1785 and died in 1851. His expeditions, during which he painted recorded observations
of more than 1,000 birds, took him to all parts of America. In his honor, the National Audubon Society was formed
in 1905 to promote the protection and conservation of wildlife, plants, soil and water.
For more information about John James Audubon.
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