Visiting Paducah Kentucky

 My mom and I recently drove to Paducah, Kentucky to do a little geocaching/adventure labs and visiting the historic section of town.  There's a lot of interesting things to see and do down at the river front and we spent a couple hours walking around and checking out the sights.  They have a fabulous set of statues dedicated to Merriweather Lewis, William Clark and their Corp of Discovery.

Paducah was first settled as "Pekin" around 1821 by European Americans James and William Pore. The town was laid out by explorer and surveyor William Clark in 1827 and renamed Paducah. It was formally established as a town in 1830 and incorporated as a city by the state legislature in 1838. It became the site of dry dock facilities for steamboats, towboats and the headquarters for many barge companies. In 1924 the Illinois Central Railroad begin construction for their largest locomotive workshop in the nation. The eleven million dollar project was completed in 1927 and was the fourth largest industrial plant in the state of Kentucky. Twenty blocks of downtown has been designated as a historic district and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As you walk through town you will notice the flood wall which was built after the Ohio River flood in 1937. Today the wall is covered with murals of the history of the town. Paducah is also home of the National Quilt Museum, built April 25, 1991.  (Taken from Geocaching.com)

Love the sections with the cobblestone streets!

One of the most interesting things down by the river front is the wall of murals depicting the history of Paducah through beautiful hand painted murals lining the flood wall.

To get credit for the "Historic District Paducah" Adventure Lab we had to visit 5 different sites near the mural and gather information.  You then enter the information into your phone app and once you answer all the questions correctly, you get credit for doing 5 caches on the geocaching site. 

The train is beautiful and much larger than you'd think.

We had so much fun doing the Adventure Lab that we decided to do another one called "Paducah Jefferson Street Memorials."   Taken from the geocaching site:  Over the last 134 years, the Jefferson Street neighborhood has grown and changed with Paducah. But, its beautiful homes—with their elegant façades and neatly kept lawns—preserve pieces of Paducah’s past. Paducah incorporated Jefferson Street and its adjacent Fountain Avenue into the city limits in 1884. About this time, gravel covered the wide streets, but workers soon began laying tracks for an electric streetcar and Jefferson Street became one of Paducah’s first and most popular “streetcar suburbs.” Eventually, the automobile changed the face of the city. The streetcars grew less and less popular until the lines stopped running. Paducah take up the tracks later in the 20th century and plant trees and grass in their place. Now, small park areas cover the Jefferson neighborhood medians, marking the old streetcar line. It is here where you will find 5 hidden memorial of the past. This adventure needs to be found in sequential order.

All of the information we needed was taken from wording on the memorial statues that lined the center of Jefferson Street.  Going geocaching or doing Adventure Labs are a great way to learn the history of different areas.  I love history, so this is a natural fit for me!

No trip to Paducah is complete without a stop at Reds Donuts.  Their donuts are fresh and delicious and I think we sometimes invent excuses to drive to Paducah just to stop at Reds.  My favorites are the raspberry filled donuts or the heath bar donuts.

It was a fun morning but we weren't finished yet.  It was such a nice day that we decided to slip over the border into Illinois and do some more geocaches and adventure labs in Metropolis which is the home of Superman.   More to come in my next post.

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