Author Archives: friendsoflimberlost

By Curt Burnette If asked to think of the year 1912 and what might have been significant about it, some folks might recall it was the year the Titanic sank. A few parents of Brownies and other Girl Scouts might remember it was the year the Girl Scouts were founded. It was also a good year for literature,Continue reading “Wherein we learn why 1912 was a good year for an ape-man, dinosaurs, and Gene Stratton-Porter”

by Alexandra Forsythe If you ever have any doubt about the importance of restoring the Limberlost Swamp and others like it, take a walk through the area, pause, close your eyes, and listen. Listen carefully to all that you hear. If you are quite still, you might hear something that sounds like a water pump.Continue reading “American Bittern and the Limberlosst swamp”

By Terri Gorney Most people in northern Indiana know Gene Stratton-Porter as a novelist; her most famous books being “The Girl of the Limberlost” and “Freckles.” Few knew that among her talents she was an early naturalist, nature photographer, artist, and movie director.  Gene wrote both fiction and non fiction books and magazine articles. She illustrated her writingsContinue reading “Gene Stratton-Porter, a Woman of Many Talents”

By Curt Burnette Certainly one measure of the popularity of an author is the number of books they sell. Another measure of their popularity might be how many movies have been made based on that author’s works. Gene Stratton-Porter rates quite highly in both of these measures. Not many people know that Mrs. Porter was a best-selling authorContinue reading “Few authors have had as many of their works made into films as did Mrs. Porter”

By Terri Gorney When most of us think of sparrows, we think of the English or house sparrow which is commonly found at our bird feeders in urban and rural areas. At Limberlost, we are fortunate to have a number of native sparrows who make their home at least part of the year at Limberlost. Those include theContinue reading “Our Native Sparrows”

By Curt Burnette Gene Stratton-Porter was known as “The Bird Woman”. It was a nickname she acquired as a child when her mother called her “the little Bird Woman”, and it stuck with her for the rest of her life. A feature article in a 1904 Muncie newspaper was titled “The Bird Woman of the Limberlost”. Gene capitalizedContinue reading “Wherein is revealed the two types of birds for which the Bird Woman had no love”

By Terri Gorney While living at Limberlost, Gene Stratton-Porter wrote, “The owl can afford to be silent of the wing, it so dominates the night with its voice. It would give me great satisfaction if I had some way of knowing surely whether other birds sleep serenely…or whether they are awake and shutter in fear.” Gene was inContinue reading “Short-eared Owls of Limberlost”

By Terri Gorney Gene Stratton-Porter’s husband Charles enjoyed collecting Native American handiwork and relics as he called them. In 1895, the Geneva Herald wrote “C.D. Porter has probably the finest collection of Indian relics in this section of Indiana.” In October 1906, he wrote to Charles “Charlie” Deam asking if it would be all right if he andContinue reading “Gene Stratton-Porter and Charles Deam”

By Curt Burnette Beaver are the largest rodents in Indiana, the largest rodents in the United States, and the second largest rodent in the world (South American capybara are the largest). But as large as they are now, they were even bigger in the past—or at least their relatives were. Around the end of the Ice Age, aboutContinue reading “Wherein we examine the history of beaver in the Limberlost— from Ice Age giants to the disappearance and return of our modern dam-builders”

By Terri Gorney Three black-necked stilts were unexpected visitors on 3 May 2013 at Limberlost on the north side Co Rd 1200S. This was a first record of these shorebirds in Adams County. In 2011, two black-necked stilts were seen at Eagle Marsh in Allen County.  They are typically found on Florida and California coast lines andContinue reading “Black-necked Stilts Make An Appearance At Limberlost”