In 2005, when the long-lost ivory-billed woodpecker was claimed to have been spotted in Arkansas, the media began calling Knoxville. The only person then alive who could claim an authentic sighting was Nancy Tanner, and she was at home at the top of Little Switzerland Road off Chapman Highway. By then, more 60 years had passed since she’d seen the “Lord God Bird” with her soon-to-be husband and ornithologist, James Tanner, in the swamps of Louisiana. After the Tanners moved to Knoxville in the late 1940s, they met Harry Ijams, who for years had been intrigued by another bird for which no resurrection would be forthcoming: the passenger pigeon. Decades after their respective passings, the Tanner’s and Ijams’ stories and conservation legacies live on. KHP’s Paul James, who served as the director of Ijams Nature Center for 12 years, will unravel the mysteries of these iconic birds and their Knox-centric connections.
Free program. Food and drinks available for purchase.
L-R: James and Nancy Tanner, ivory-billed woodpecker, Harry Ijams, and the passenger pigeon.
(Courtesy of the Tanner family, Thompson Photo, and KHP.)
