How Owensboro’s Heavy Rain Brought a Piece of Chautauqua Park’s History Back to Life

I'm easily entertained, and that's a good thing. It could be why I marvel at things others might not. Of course, going slack-jawed over the amount of rain I drove through coming to work might not be an uncommon reaction around here. We haven't seen rain like what we've had today in months in Owensboro.

Heavy Rain in Owensboro

My jaw slacked a little further as I drove over Horse Fork Creek and noticed it had spilled over into adjacent neighborhoods. (They might think "spilled over" is an understatement, come to think of it.)

Even the back of our parking lot here at work got in on the action. That's how I usually get here, but not today.

Flooded Chautauqua Park

It occurs to me I haven't written about rain since early April, when it didn't seem like it would ever stop. But here we are. And we need it, having received very little rain since August. The downpour also created a look into the past at Chautauqua Park, something Owensboro Parks & Recreation was quick to note on social media.

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Chautauqua Park History

I don't remember the lagoon at Chautauqua Park; it was gone before I was born. But I remember my mother talking about it frequently, especially when it snowed because of that great big sledding hill.

Chautauqua Park was party central back in the day, what with the lagoon and an auditorium. It was the place for mixing business with pleasure, for example, in 1946.

There's also a pictorial history book about Owensboro that was published in 1990 that features, among other things, old images of Chautauqua Park. I'm glad it's as popular today as it's ever been. The history continues.