Lower Howard’s Creek
Nature and Heritage Preserve
No way...
I can’t do it...
I simply don’t
have the necessary skill to do this great preserve justice with a simple
photo-journal! You’ll simply have to come out here to truly
appreciate this place. What you’ll find out here is not only
a fantastic place to hike but also a great place to view an old homestead, an
old mill, an incredible bridge, some waterfalls, and an old wilderness road –
all of this in the midst of some beautiful farmland along the
I wasn’t even aware that this spot existed until I was informed about it by one of the visitors to this site. In fact, last year when I was paddling a section of the Kentucky River near Fort Boonesborough I was told that there was an old mill back in the Lower Howard’s Creek (the same creek that Hall’s on the River is on). So, as part of that trip, I tried to paddle back into the creek far enough to see it but I couldn’t – the water was much too shallow. Well, my website visitor informed me that I would have had to go back about 2 miles to get to it, but he also clued me in about something else I didn’t know – this preserve! Today I would find out just how amazing this place is, and I hope that you can get a chance to come out here too because I think it will be infinitely worth your time!
After visiting
the web site for the preserve (here)
I called in to reserve a spot on this hike. They seem to
offer a few different one’s each month and these are regularly updated
on their site and on their Facebook page. They're located
just outside Lexington and to get here I drove
straight out Richmond Road from Lexington (which soon turns into
Athens-Boonesboro Road). I then found the entrance to the preserve on the left
side just after the intersection with Combs Ferry Road, but before Hall’s on the
River. I almost missed it, but just driving in I could tell
that it was going to be quite a day.
You’ll be making your way directly onto some farmland as you enter, and there
were bales of hay lying around on this particular day as testament to that fact.
At the end of the gravel lane you’ll find a small parking lot.
This is where everyone was congregating (there were about a dozen people along
with me on this hike today).
Presently we met out guide, Clare, who made sure we were all accounted for and then we started the hike. It began on an old wilderness road which provided some amazing views of the Kentucky countryside.
It was once
we’d passed an old circular millstone that our afternoon began in earnest (this
was about a 3 hour hike) as the path descended down a moderate slope in a right
arc towards the creek. Clare stopped us occasionally here,
and at other locations during our afternoon to point out and explain some of the
local flora,. Some of these species were noted as being endangered, yet here they’ve found a real haven.
Hence,
they only offer guided hikes out here (see directions below) and they don’t
allow for pets.
When we reached
the bottom of the hill we were right beside the
Continuing along the trail beside the creek (heading upstream) we very soon reached a bridge that we crossed. Well, I can tell you that this bridge alone is worth coming out see! It’s an amazing architectural feat, but you’ll need to watch your step while going over this – with a dozen of us on it we were swaying a bit!
What greeted us
next was the old mill. Apparently it was thought that this
mill was originally owned and operated by a man named Martin, but only recently
was it discovered that a misinterpretation had been made and that the real
owner had been a man named Bush. The situation isn’t exactly
the same, but it’s somewhat similar to how things can get lost (or gained) in
the translation as they’re passed on from one person to another over time.
Something like how:
“John caught a
fish.” becomes:
“John caught a
big fish.” becomes:
“John caught a
shark.” becomes:
“Andy caught
the Loch Ness Monster.”!
You just never
know how far these things can morph until they become something that’s
almost totally out of proper context. It’s nobody’s fault,
you understand. It just happens.
Check out this mill though! Believe it or not, my camera ran out of memory here just as I was about to take this picture! It seems that something comical happens on every… single… trip! Turns out, I changed the program through which I upload pictures from my camera onto my computer and forgot to change the settings to: “delete pictures from camera after transfer”! Aaaargh! I had too many pictures in the dog-boned memory! Luckily, I had a friend with me who let me borrow her camera.
Anyway, there’s
a great deal of this mill still to be seen. The water flow
that once supplied it's power was furnished by a channeled stream that they used
to call a “millrace” (presumably because it appeared as if the water was
“racing” toward the mill on its journey through this channel). We could
see traces of this millrace in what appeared today as a
little ditch. It was once filled with water and it was much
deeper too.
In its’ day it ran for almost 1/2 mile upriver to the dam which
directed the water flow into it. We would see the remains of
this dam soon…
Rounding the bends in the river, we eventually came to the remains of an old homestead just before said dam. One of the many things that struck me today was that they had a metal structure over the top of this, ostensibly to protect it from the elements as they carefully reconstruct it to look like it might have done back when it was first built. This house was part of the Bush homestead which was occupied until the 1940’s although it hadn’t really gotten much TLC until now.
This is quite an operation they’ve got going out here. Not only are they reconstructing the house (a log home) but they’re also working on 2 other stone structures as well. One of these is speculated to have been a smokehouse and the other a storehouse. Clare let us walk through these and she also took us up to see a couple little cemeteries on the hill above these structures.
This homestead
was apparently one of many which used be part of a thriving settlement and
industrial center here before the railroads and then the highways preempted the
Kentucky River as main avenues for commerce. Before then the
river was it! Therefore, in the earliest days the people of
this community would do what many others along the river did – they’d load up
their boats with their wares (in their case, most likely near the mouth of Lower
Howard’s Creek on the Kentucky), wait for the spring rains to lift the water
level, and then they’d float said wares down the Kentucky River.
From there they might end up selling them anywhere along the
As for us
today, we all stayed for a while to take all this in and imagined what it would
have been like to live here… Despite all the work going on
back then at the mill we were told that it would have been pretty quiet at this
location – just the water rushing through the millrace and maybe the sounds of
the mill grinding up the grain just downstream. It must have
been a great and peaceful place in which to reside – and to grown up in!
In fact, we were told that they found remnants of old toys out here…
After a short stroll down the path we came to the remnants of the dam. There’s not a whole lot remaining with the creek having reclaimed much of the structure, but we could see where the millrace had begun and we certainly enjoyed the picturesque atmosphere of the stream! Speaking of the stream, we were supposed to cross it here but it was a bit too high so we headed back on a different path. This would be the conclusion of our hike today.
On the way back, though, we were able to see a waterfall and we got to re-cross the aforementioned bridge. We also went by some different points of an old quarry operation. In fact, one of these spots was where they’d originally obtained the stones for the 2 structures back at the homestead. It must have taken a lot of man (and horse) power to bring all these stones down the hill, over the river, and up to the buildings!
Once having climbed back up the hill we all said our goodbye’s and headed back home, yet even though this was a fairly short hike I really felt like I had just done something incredibly worthwhile. There was a ton of information to digest and consider and my eyes were opened to so many new things. All this, and we were only on one section of trail today! They’ve got a total of 5 miles out here! Guess who will be coming back to visit soon? In the meantime I’ll be left to daydream on what it would have been like to live on the Lower Howard’s Creek in the 1800’s…
DIRECTIONS:
Please visit
the website link above for information on the preserve. The
hikes out here are only allowed on a guided basis, but they offer a few
different ones each month (which are routinely updated on the site).
In fact, they have quite a bit of information about the preserve on this
site, including many pictures and a lot more historical and botanical
information about the area. Check it out!