Travel Guide Paducah

Paducah, relatively isolated at the western border of the state, lies at the confluence of the Tennessee River and Ohio River. It has about 25 000 inhabitants. Named Peking, in 1815, the city was renamed Paducah in 1827 by William Clark, then super of Indian Affairs for the Mississippi-Missouri region. This was in honour of the Padouca Indians, who were at that time a great tribe in North America. Paducah prospered rapidly due to its port facilities. It became a city in 1856 and continued to develop by becoming a major maintenance site for steam vessels and a major railway hub for Illinois Central Railroad (ICRR) because of the proximity of the coal mines in Kentucky and Illinois. In 1937, a flood of Ohio seriously damaged the city. A flood protection wall (floodwall) was then built to replace the land lifting that had proved ineffective.In 1948, Paducah was chosen for the development of a uranium enrichment plant. The latter operated from 1952 to 2013 and was for a long time the only factory of this kind in the United States.In 1991, the Museum of the American Quilter's Society (MAQS) became the National Quilt Museum and exhibited works from all over the world. Paducah has several other museums, such as the Paducah Railroad Museum, the River Discovery Museum, the Tilghman Civil War Museum, and the former William Clark Market House Museum, founded in 1968 and located in the heart of downtown downtown. There are several restaurants and coffee shop in the hotel. From here it is good to join the Quilt Museum or the nearby river. Next to the former LOCOMOTIVE locomotive in exhibition, Robert Dafford's mural paintings on the flood protection wall can be seen. They occupy 350 metres and were created by the artist in 1994. Other wall paintings by Robert Dafford are found in the United States, including Maysville, also in Kentucky. Important celebrations organized by the city annually include the Lowertown Arts & Music Festival (May), Quiltweek (April and September) and BBQ on the River (September).