Day 4 (cont.) - Who knew?

After I was done at the quilt museum we checked into the hotel and then headed back to downtown Paducah for dinner. All the shops had closed in that time. Apparently downtown Paducah closes up at 5:00pm. I would have liked to have seen  some of the shops, but not if it meant less time at the museum. We had dinner at C. C. Cohen Restaurant and Bar. Check out their site to read about the ghost that lives upstairs!

Paducah sits right on the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. Back in 1937 the city suffered a devastating flood. Afterward the US Army Corp of Engineers was commissioned to build a flood wall to protect the city from future flooding. Why am I telling you all of this? Because back in 1996, a team of muralists under the direction of artist Robert Dafford began capturing Paducah's history in paintings on the flood wall. I don't know how many there are - 60? 70? - but each mural has its own plaque with the history that inspired that panel. And, each mural has its own spotlight so that people can enjoy the murals after the sun goes down. Here are a couple of "long shots" of the murals.

We easily spent a couple of hours walking along, looking at all the murals and reading all the plaques. I had no idea that Paducah had such a rich history. I had never even heard of it before finding out about the National Quilt Museum. It kind of makes me wonder how many other places I've never heard of have such interesting histories. I think it was a brilliant idea to use the flood walls as a visual historical record. I'll leave you with a few individual mural shots.