Robert Sparks Walker's 'As the Indians Left It' reprinted

Reagan Hughes, left, and Hannah Queen visit the Spring Frog cabin at Audobon Acres in East Brainerd.
Reagan Hughes, left, and Hannah Queen visit the Spring Frog cabin at Audobon Acres in East Brainerd.

If you go

› What: Robert Sparks Walker’s “As the Indians Left It” reprint book launch.› When: 6-7 p.m. Thursday, July 26.› Where: Star Line Books, 1467 Market St., Suite 106.› Phone: 423-777-5629 (bookstore), 423-892-1499 (Audubon Acres).

The Chattanooga Audubon Society will celebrate the reprint of Robert Sparks Walker's "As the Indians Left It" in a launch party scheduled Thursday at Star Line Books.

Walker was a nationally known historian and naturalist, Pulitzer Prize nominee and founder of the Chattanooga Audubon Society.

"As the Indians Left It," first printed in 1955, is the story of Audubon Acres, a wildlife sanctuary formed by Walker in 1944 to protect the family farm where he had spent his youth. Walker was born on the property in 1878, in Spring Frog Cabin, built in 1750 by Spring Frog, a Cherokee naturalist. The cabin remains on the 130-acre property, also known as the Elise Chapin Wildlife Sanctuary and headquarters for the Chattanooga Audubon Society. Walker was buried on the grounds after his death in 1960.

The first half of the book details life on the farm in the early 1900s when Chattanooga was a full day's ride by wagon from what is now East Brainerd. The book's second half recounts the formation and early years of the Chattanooga Audubon Society through the struggle to purchase Walker's siblings' shares of the family farm to conflicts with neighbors who had grown used to hunting on the property.

"Throughout, the book provides a marvelous perspective on Robert Sparks Walker, Audubon Acres and the preservation of Chattanooga's first wildlife sanctuary," says a news release from Ray Zimmerman, president of the board of directors.

Chattanooga's WonderPress handled the reprint.

The launch party will start at 6 p.m. Star Line Books is at 1467 Market St., Suite 106.

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