October 22, 2020 - Patton Museum, Land Between the Lakes

We were looking for something to do with Bob and Jayne the next day.  The Patton Museum was on their way home so we decided to go there.  You can be sure I called up and made sure they were open.

Here we are back in front of the M-60 tank.
   
 
   

The great General himself:  General George S. Patton, U.S. Army.

When we went into the museum, I asked the guy why the museum had been closed the other day.  It was because both curators or directors were not available.  It sounded kind of fishy to me, but whatever.
   
Patton recognized the possibilities of flight and apparently flew all the time in observation planes.
   
The museum was set up to tell Patton's story but it was also set up to teach leadership principles.
   
This is the actual car that Patton was fatally injured in in a car accident.  I read Bill O'Reilly's book about Patton and the car accident; it was very suspicious.  Like many things, we will never know what really happened.
   
Patton's famous polished helmet, although it has tarnished with age.
   
The two ivory-handled revolvers Patton always wore.  The one on the right is a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.
   
Patton liked to wear this Army Air Force flight jacket that Jimmy Dolittle gave him.
   
 
   
P20
   
The actual table used at the Iraqi surrender to General Schwartkoff.
   
A German Stug-III assault gun.  Because it had no moveable turrent, and used the obsolete Panzer MkIII chassis, it was much cheaper and quicker to build than a tank.  It primarily served in the Germany infantry divisions and was very effective.
   
This particular vehicle was dug out of the swamp in northern Russia.
   
Two of my favorite moview of all time -- Goldfinger with Sean Connery and Stripes with Bill Murray -- were filmed here on Fort Knox.
   
Inside the museum gift shop was this model of the Bullion Depository which was actually used in the Goldfinger movie.
   

We said goodbye to Bob and Jayne.  They headed north back to Indiana and we headed west to the "Land Between the Lakes".  We entered the land at the north and drove through the south.  I didn't know what to expect.  There really wasn't a lot to see from the main road through the area.  The entire place seemed to be more of a recreation area for boating, fishing, camping, hiking, an off-road vehicle area, etc. than something you would go just to see.   In fact, it is a National Recreation Area.  I'd like to see it from the air.

The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers flow very close to each other in the northwestern corner of Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, separated by a narrow and mostly low ridge. The area of land that separates the two bodies of water has been known as "Between the Rivers" since the 1830s or 1840s.  After the Cumberland River was impounded in the 1960s and a canal was constructed between the two manmade lakes, Land Between the Lakes became the largest inland peninsula in the United States.  Downstream from this area, the courses of the two rivers: the mouth of the Cumberland empties into the Ohio River approximately 4 miles from that of the Tennessee.

The area was designated as a national recreation area in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
   

But they did have this Bison and Elk viewing drive.  Sure, why not?

Beginning in the 1970s, the 700-acre  "Elk & Bison Prairie" enclosure was developed.  In preparation, the TVA conducted prescribed burns to encourage the expansion of the remnant patches of native prairie, which had been crowded out by the growth of oak and hickory forests over the previous 150 years, when grazing animals were not held here. After the area was regularly burned and reseeded with grasses, elk (from Elk Island National Park of Canada) and American bison were brought to the prairie. Their grazing will help limit the growth of trees.  In 1996 the "Elk & Bison Prairie" was officially inaugurated. It is now open to driving tours and visitors can see the large mammals that occupied a typical 18th-century landscape for this area.
   
At first we didn't see anything.  Where's all the Bison?  Where's all the Elk?
   
It was pretty, but no animals so far.  Our timing was good; it was getting close to dusk when the animals like to come out.
   
Why are all these cars stopping?
   
There's an Elk!
   
Looks like just a solitary tree in a field.
   
But look closer.
   
 
   
A mama Elk with one of her little ones.
   
Three little ones to be exact.
   
 
   
A flock of wild turkeys in the distance.
   

The finale was this big guy.

We never did see any Bison on the loop drive.  But towards the southern end of the Land Between The Lakes we did see a Bison herd in the distance off the road.
   
 
   
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