Posts - Pat Arnow

In Forest We Trust

The land in Southeast Kentucky once farmed by writers Harold and Harriette Arnow has grown up into a forest.

The old Arnow farm is now in the hands of the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.

The hilly land in Southeast Kentucky that writers Harold and Harriette Arnow farmed for a few laborious years toward the end of The Great Depression remained in the family for nearly 90 years. Uninhabited, it grew into a forest. I inherited the property in 2010, when their daughter, my beloved cousin Marcella, died. I promised her I’d make sure the land would remain a forest forever. It took years, but I gained a conservation easement that ensured it would never be mined, drilled or developed.

Recently, I entrusted its further protection and care to the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust. It feels right to have this marvelous place in the hands of a regional Kentucky organization devoted to preserving wildlands. Here’s from their announcement about it:

“Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) is proud to announce the establishment of the Arnow Woodland Preserve. The 139 acres are in Pulaski County on the Cumberland Plateau along the South Fork of the Cumberland River. The land is the former homestead of Kentucky author Harriette Arnow and her husband Harold. Their niece, Pat Arnow, donated the old farm to KNLT over the winter to be forever wild.” Read KNLT’s announcement here.

Here’s a lovely article with more details, “This KY farmland was the setting for a bestseller. Now it will honor the author’s legacy” by Linda Blackford, February 17, 2026, The Lexington Herald-Leader.

For photos and a bit more history about the farm and Harold and Harriette Arnow’s life there, I wrote an article on my website: https://arnow.org/arnow-land/: “A subsistence farm in the 1930s provided the backdrop for one of Harriette Arnow’s distinguished Kentucky novels: The Land of Hunter’s Horn and The Dollmaker“

In Forest We Trust Read More »

Wild Things

We were staying in a cabin in the woods by an inlet on a marsh. I sat drawing and humming by the quiet inlet, seeing the muddy banks emerge at low tide, watching the colors change constantly in the sky and the water, the long grasses waving . Then a splash just below me in the reeds. A river otter loudly and lustily chomped on a fish.

River Otter gulping a fish, Edisto Island State Park, S.C.

Exciting wildlife dramas were a bonus on our visit to Edisto Beach State Park, South Carolina, in February. The twisty long branches of the live oaks dripping with Spanish moss and the palmetto fronds in the misty air would have been enough. The long beaches and inlets. More than enough. Not being in New York during a blizzard, gloatingly enough.

But then there was the dolphin that chased a fish onto the muddy embankment and captured it there.

Dolphin catches a fish by chasing it onto a muddy embankment on an inlet in Edisto Beach State Park, S.C.

On a trail, the top of a pine tree provided a perch for a mansion of an eagle’s nest.

An eagle perches on its nest at the top of a pine tree near a trail in Edisto Beach State Park.

The parent eagle on a branch nearby (look to the left)looked small by comparison to its nest.

An eagle perches on a branch to the left of its nest at the top of a pine tree near a trail in Edisto Beach State Park.

For lots more photos including from Charleston, South Carolina, and of our friends from Tennessee and North Carolina who visited with us at Edisto Island, visit my Zenfolio album: https://patarnow.zenfolio.com/p491044924

Wild Things Read More »

Close Up and Far Away

Travels, Adventures, Friends, Big Days, and Tiny Moments

I post occasional photoessays about interesting people and places. If you sign on using the form on this page, you’ll get a notice when I publish (generally just a few times a year). This is a new location for my blog. Here are links to favorite photoessays from my old site: