Allen Johnson

Program Title:
Canoeing the Wabash

Description:
When Allen Johnson grew up on the Wabash River n Lawrenceville, Illinois, he dreamed of adventures involving pioneer, Indians and wild animals.  A few years ago, Allen took his 10-year-old grandson, Paul, on the adventures of his dreams. Allen and Paul canoed 500 miles down the Wabash, camping on the banks, fishing and reliving the adventures of the pioneers.

“We encountered deer, fox, muskrats, beaver, raccoons, squirrels and possums on the wild parts of the upper Wabash,” Allen explained.  “Paul fished whenever we stopped paddling.  He caught catfish, bluegills, gar, carp, and drumfish.  I related the history of Indiana and the Wabash as we canoed, talking about the early settlers, Tecumseh, William Henry Harrison, George Rogers Clark and the French fur traders.”  

Allen and Paul canoed 500 miles in 16 days and every day was a new adventure.

Biography:
Born in the small Southern Illinois town of Lawrenceville in 1935, Allen Johnson grew up leading a quiet life of sand lot baseball, fishing, camping out and day-dreaming. After college he realized he could live out his early daydreams.  His job as a communications engineer with the U.S.  Air Force gave him the opportunity to travel and travel he did.   In the past 40 years Allen has flown over 5 million miles and visited 50 countries.  He has chased polar bears across the Canadian Arctic, ridden camels across the Australian Outback, bicycled to the Arctic Circle, kayaked the Bay of Fundy, skied on the Arctic Ocean in Greenland, swam with sharks in Mexico and jogged the Great Wall of China.  Allen has written twelve adventure travel books.