Paducah Museum Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Name Change

The River Discovery Center in Paducah, Ky., is now the Inland Waterways Museum.

As part of the museum’s 20th birthday celebration on August 14, staff announced the new name and a planned multi-million-dollar renovation and expansion.

Phase 1 of the expansion will remove some non-working exhibits that were original to the museum and put in their place one focusing on the 1937 flood, executive director Polly Brasher said. Designed, fabricated and to be installed by Solid Light Inc. of Louisville, Ky., the exhibit will use lighting, images and film footage from the flood along with first-hand testimony to recreate the experience of living in Paducah when it took place.

“You’ll hear the storm,” Brasher said. “You’ll see the lightning.”

As the water gets higher, the temperature will also drop.

“What a lot of people don’t realize was it was in January, and it was freezing,” Brasher said.

The renovation phase also includes equipping a second classroom and updating the museum’s model of the steamboat Delta Queen, to include refurbishment of sounds and lighting.

Popular exhibits, including the museum’s extensive collection of riverboat and towboat models, and its simulator, where visitors can try their hand at driving recreational and commercial vessels, will remain.

The first phase of renovations is expected to cost $2 million. While design has been funded through a grant and donations from four supporters, the museum plans a fundraising drive to raise the rest, Brasher said. That will include a letter-writing campaign along with an annual golf scramble and fish fry.

The museum also has plans for an additional $5 million in renovations once the first phase is completed. That will allow the museum to expand into adjacent storage space, making it possible for the addition of exhibits on the riverboat industry, conservation, the Trail of Tears and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

“People say ‘How fast is this going to happen?’” Brasher said. “It depends on how fast the money comes in.”

For the entire renovation, she believes that is likely to take a minimum of six years, but it could stretch into 10 to 12 years. Regardless, she said, the museum will not take on debt to fund it.

The museum received a $4,000 grant from the Paducah Convention and Visitors Bureau that allowed for the rebranding of the museum, using the services of JM Creative. That includes a new logo, showing a paddlewheel from a steamboat pushing a modern-day towboat, said Caroline Veatch, museum marketing coordinator. The logo symbolizes the river history of past days propelling the museum into the present day, she said.

The name change is meant to recognize the museum’s location in Paducah, at the heart of the inland waterways system, home to major towboat companies, as well as to differentiate it from other museums with discovery in the name that are geared toward small children, Veatch said.

The museum will also have a new website and updated social media.