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The Richards Bend Journal
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This Until the Hepatica Bloom
October 27, 2001 - Late Feburary/Early March
Page 22
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Listening to: Patrick O'Hearn - A beautiful Place to Be
January 13
The Richards Cabin at Richards Bend was built in 1842... I think I've mentioned that before. I've been looking for the historical notes that Mr. Richards send to me. The history of the cabin fascinates me to no end; Diddle lived at the place from about 1962 until 1981. I can't remember who lived there just before him, but it's in the Richards Notes... I do recall who lived there before that - Ida and Willie Waddle, and there are people still living who remember the Waddles - Willie died in 1946. I am not sure how, but I do know that he was buried the same day that he died, in a cemetery near the place. An old man stopped by for a visit a couple of years ago, and he was 8 years old when he and his family attended the funeral for Willie, at the cabin. He said that what he remembered most about the funeral was that they had Willie dressed up and laid out on the dinner table, inside the cabin - He also said that cats where climbing on the old screen door trying to get in the cabin; he said he thought the cats could sense the death, and were trying to get in. Mr. Mounce, who owns all the land across the creek from Richards Bend says when he was ten, Mrs. Waddle would pay him a nickel to come stay with her (after Willie died) - and he'd fetch water and stuff like that.
There's a lot more history associated with the cabin itself, but lately I've been more interested in the history of the cave that is there. The cave is a large dissected truck that goes back in the mountain a couple thousand feet - the entrance is a gapping hole in the side of the mountain and it was used for many thousands of years as a camp for Native Americas... Arrowpoints and other relics are common - the other day i got curious as to what's known about the earliest people in North America, specifically, the first people who lived at Richard Bend - Armed with a few arrowheads that I've found, I went to the Kentucky Library, located in Lexington, the town were my office is - I did some research and now my curiosity has been given a big boost. Based on archaeological digs across Kentucky, it is thought the first people in Kentucky were the Clovis, about 12,000 ago, just after the ice ages - these people were nomadic and they hunted the megafauna; bison, mammoths and sloths - the ecology was different then, and could support these megafauna - There hasn't been a great deal of Clovis material found in Kentucky, and i don't believe, though i could be wrong, that the Clovis people lived at Richards Bend. I just don't get the feeling they did. After the Clovis were the Early, Middle and Late Archaic People... The Earlies inhabited the gentler landscapes of western and central Kentucky, but by the Middle Archaic Period, starting about 8,000 years ago, the climate was changing, the megafauna were disappearing and the people began to wonder into south-central and eastern Kentucky - and based on the tool making practices of these people, I do believe, and again, I could be wrong, these are the people who first lived at Richards Bend - I have a feeling about this - and I while I have identified arrowpoint types at Richards Bend suggesting these were the first people, i can't be sure what evidence may be underneath the surface - in other words, the first habitations of Richards Bend my be older, but i don't think so. I've decide that the Middle Archaic People were the first, and I've stood, listened, contemplated for hours now, standing at Richards Bend, in the valley and in the cave, trying to picture in my mind what life must have been like for them, 8,000 years ago.
During the Middle Archaic period, the landscape, or the basic land shape at Richards Bend was probably very close to what it is today - The creek was there, for sure, were it is now, and the cave was there too... the valley, and how it all fit together, was the same then as it is now. The cave may have changed a little, especially at the actual entrance - rocks have surely fallen, and become buried in the dirt accumulating on the floor. But the environment at Richards Bend from 8,000 years ago, and now is totally different - Now it is a warm, semitropical environmental with rich hardwood forests - and deciduous ecosystems. But 8,000 years ago, when people first arrived at Richards Bend, the climate was colder and more damp. The environment was that of today's near-arctic - Boreal Forests, spruce and other conifers covered the landscape - it would be similar to today's Upper Michigan or Main - and this is hard for me to fathom - Standing at Richard Bend, trying to imagine the place without the cabin, without the road - and having it be covered with Boreal Forests is just awe inspiring to me. The people themselves where still hunter-gathers, living off the hunting of medium and small game such as deer, turkey. They also ate nuts, plants and roots. They were a nomadic society, forming small bands, and moving from site to site, in order to sustain itself off the land. Richards Bend was probably a place they spent winters, due to the very effective and warm (54 degrees year round) shelter the cave provided. The people themselves never lived to old age. Based on the published archaeological evidence, most adult burials during the Middle Archaic were of individuals in their mid to late 20's... which is also fascinating to me. When I imagine the people of Richards Bend, 8,000 years ago, i have envisioned a small group of people centered on an elder or two - the elders in my mind have been say in their 50's or even 60's - Based on the evidence, these elders would have been no more than 30. Think of it. A small band of people, living at Richards Bend - in a near Arctic environmental, knapping out stone tools, hunting and gathering, and all of the know-how necessary to survive - the first requirement for survival that comes to mind is strong, elder leadership - and, as it turns out, these people were young! They were young people, and they survived those harsh environments - indeed, they flourished. Of the very first people to set foot on Richards Bend, what do you think their names where? What language did they speak? (Something probably now lost.) What did they look like? Where they attractive? Were they happy people? Did they have a satisfying existence? Do you suppose they mourned the loss of their elders, and felt frightened at the passing? And out of the Human Habitation at Richards Bend, what individual loved it most? What was his/her name, and, from elsewhere returning, was there warmth in their hearts, coming back to this place?
From the Middle Archaic came the Late Archaic, then the Early, Middle and Late Woodland Periods of human habitation in Kentucky - After the Woodland periods came the Mississippian Cultures, in which strong political and social networks were organized (tribes, Shawnee, Cherokee, etc.). And right through it all, I am convinced Richards Bend has been continually habitated - that is, with the possible exception of the years after about 1,300 AD - There is evidence that at about that time, the Native American people had attained a complex system of government, and had set most of the state of Kentucky aside for hunting - large settlements existed north of the Ohio River (Shawnee) and along the Tennessee River in Tennessee (Cherokee) and these peoples used the bulk of the Kentucky land area for longhunting. However, i personally believe that Richards Bend remained a nearly continually habitated location; the nomadic hunter-gathers replaced by a more organized collection of occasional inhabiters from either Ohio or Tennessee.
According to Mr. Richards, when George Washing Waddle, a stone mason, arrived at Richards Bend just prior to 1842, reconnoitering the place to build the Richards Cabin, there were native Americans still living at the cave - it is said there were four or five "Indians living at the cave, and they were sick - all of them were sick, and over the course of the next few months, they all ether died, or moved". So, in the year 1842, a nearly continuous native habitation of Richards Bend transitioned into an all white habitation - I will write more about the history of the place after 1842, but these two history's are both fascinating to me - and I spend a great deal of time imagining what human life has been like at Richards Bend, ever since 10,000 BC.
reference cited: R. Barry Lewis, 1996, Kentkcy Archaeology, University of Kentucky Press, Lexington, KY
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