Friends of Audubon connections work to build and bring recreation of famed ‘Long Tom’ Fowler to Henderson
(This article first appeared in the September print edition of the Hendersonian.)
If you live in Henderson, there’s a fairly good chance you have a basic understanding of John James Audubon’s time here in the early part of the 19th century. It was the frontier times in what was considered the American West, and Audubon lived here, in Henderson, completing a good portion of the paintings that would fill his seminal work, “The Birds of America.”
And most likely, that’s how you think of Audubon—as a painter.
But local Audubon aficionados hope a new, years-in-the-making display will shed light on a more complete picture of who Audubon was.
A recently completed recreation of one of the guns Audubon used when he lived here, his “Long Tom” Fowler, will show a side of Audubon the man who was comfortable hiking through canebrakes and sloughs of local rivers to take the specimens he needed to paint his famous birds in their natural poses, say Mike Smith and Bill Campbell, who were both instrumental in getting the recreation compete.
“That’s the other side of Audubon that really doesn’t get told as much,” Smith said. “He could adapt to any situation he was put into.” Smith added those situations could be the gritty difficulties of frontier life or posh surroundings in Europe talking to the elite or even royalty.
Both Campbell and Smith say another piece often forgotten is that Audubon had to be an expert marksman to take all the specimens.
“He was noted in his prowess of his ability to shoot,” Smith said.
“He probably took more birds than probably anyone ever had,” Campbell said. And most of them he took himself on his habitual long walks, sometimes as far as 20 miles a day, he added.
Although both Smith and Campbell are enthralled with this other side of Audubon—and the firearm he used that proves it—the story of how local folks recreated the “Long Tom” Fowler is just as interesting.
For Smith, a Friends of Audubon member, it started more than a dozen years ago when he started researching the firearms that Audubon had used while in Henderson. He learned that some of Audubon’s guns were located at Princeton University and the New York Museum of Natural History. There were talks to recreate one of those, but it didn’t work out, Smith said.
In 2018, the Friends of Audubon and Smith learned that Audubon’s favorite gun, his “Long Tom” Fowler—the gun he carried in Henderson—was going to go up for auction. That firearm was Audubon’s own, given to his wife Lucy Bakewell Audubon who later gave it to her brother and then was handed down through generations.
Excited, the Friends got tens of thousands of dollars together and thought they had a good shot at garnering the winning bid.
They came up a bit short. The winning bidder in the October 2018 auction, conducted by Cowan’s Auctions, was Johnny Morris. If you’re not familiar with the name, you will be familiar with the company he founded and owns: Bass Pros Shops. His winning bid was $192,000.
Morris bought it for inclusion in his Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium in Springfield, Mo.
Although they couldn’t win at auction, all was not lost for the Friends. Luckily, a contingency plan soon emerged. Enter Bill Campbell, who has a connection to the Friends because his wife, Dina, is a longtime board member.
Campbell is the founder of Stonebridge Promotions and Stonebridge Press. One of the jobs he’d taken during his long career was to recreate seven items that Merriweather Lewis and William Clark brought with them on their Corps of Discovery Expedition in the very early 19th century.
This recreation was successful. The items, including a recreation of the Lewis and Clark journal, traveled to five museums across the United States during a 3-year-period in the early 2000s.
This venture was also important to the Friends’ new goal, which after Smith and Campbell began talking was—instead of buying the original gun—to recreate as best as possible Audubon’s Long Tom Fowler when he lived in Henderson and used it here.
For that to happen, and to do it right, they needed to get a closer look at the original, now housed in the Missouri museum. Turns out, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
Campbell said it took some 50 phone calls between him and the museum curators over a course of two or three years to get the look they needed, which were exact measurements and a lot of photographs of all the gun’s parts. Campbell said they weren’t so excited to have someone recreate the gun that had been bought for $192,000.
Campbell’s experience, however, recreating the Lewis and Clark items lended credibility to museum officials.
Furthermore, Campbell had a personal connection to Morris. With his work with Stonebridge, Campbell had done trade shows and promotions where Morris had been present and had worked with other people connected to Morris on other projects.
A final piece needed to convince the museum officials was reassurances that the Friends of Audubon was planning the recreation to be used for the Audubon Museum. In all, it took a lot of negotiating and communication.
Finally, they got the go-ahead. On a first trip, Campbell and wife went to take photographs. Later, a group of the Friends and Campbell went again, when more photographs were taken and exact measurements were made.
After that, the group hired gunmaker Frank House, of Woodbury, Ky. in Butler County, to build the recreation. House is described in one publication as an internationally known contemporary longrifle master. He spent three years recreating the Long Tom.
Both Campbell and Smith are quick to point out that House’s creation is not a replica, which aims to duplicate the gun when bought by Morris, who got it after most likely a lot of changes were made to it since Audubon had lived in Henderson.
The Friends, instead, wanted a recreation of the gun at the time when Audubon lived here and used it here. They say what House recreated for them is much closer to the Long Tom Fowler Audubon used to take the specimens he needed to do his famous work here.
Campbell said they were upset to not get the original, but “this is much closer, almost exact, to what he used.”
Experts in the field are impressed, witnessed by the Friends’ entry of Audubon’s Long Tom at the Contemporary Longrifle Association show in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 8-9. Smith described it as a very prestigious show for longrifle enthusiasts and other artisans who create items from the frontier period. The “Long Tom” was picked as one of five exceptional exhibit displays at the show.
Now, the recreation of Audubon’s Long Tom Fowler awaits its turn to be displayed at Audubon Museum. Smith said he expects that the gun could go to other museums later for temporary displays and exhibits, but its home will be in the Henderson museum.
Smith said the gun is back with House, and he is putting some final touches on it before turning it over to the Friends. The Friends of Audubon are currently deciding the date when the “Long Tom” Fowler will be put on display at Audubon Museum, he said.
