Category Archives: Uncategorized

By Curt Burnette In the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice whisper to him as he walks through his cornfield in Iowa. The voice tells him, “If you build it, he will come.” In this fantasy movie, Ray builds a baseball diamond in his cornfield and long dead baseball playersContinue reading “Wherein we learn how the theme of a famous baseball movie relates to the restoration of the Limberlost”

By Curt Burnette The bald eagle became the unofficial symbol of the U.S. as part of the Great Seal of the United States when it was adopted on June 20, 1782. The official designation as our national bird and symbol did not occur for another seven years, in 1789. During those seven years, there wereContinue reading “Wherein our columnist mulls over the symbolism of a nation rescuing its national symbol”

By Terri Gorney The Miller and Aspy families were early settlers of Geneva and well known in the community. Gene Stratton-Porter would become friends with three generations of this extended family. She would photograph the old cabin on the Aspy farm and place it in Friends in Feathers. Andrew Jackson Miller married Sarah Aspy. TheyContinue reading “Wherein the Miller Family Became Lifelong Friends of Gene Stratton-Porter”

By Kimberley Roll March is a great time to view the beginnings of spring migration with the waterfowl at the Limberlost Swamp Wetland Preserve and the Loblolly Marsh. March is a month of overlapping between the new arrivals and winter residents that have not left yet. Ring-billed gulls arrived in March. Northern shoveler taking offContinue reading “Marsh Madness”

By Curt Burnette Gene Stratton-Porter loved snake fences. These were not fences designed to keep snakes away (Although, as discussed in a past column, Gene had a fear of snakes). No these were the old-fashioned split-rail fence that was not laid out in a straight line, but in a zig-zag pattern that resembled the bodyContinue reading “Wherein Mrs. Porter’s great fondness for snake fences is discussed”

By Adrienne Provenzano What do you see through your windows on February 27th? Any feathered friends? Snap a photo and share it with the Friends of the Limberlost! It’s clear that Gene Stratton-Porter, nicknamed the Bird Woman, loved birds. In 1919, her book “Homing With The Birds” was published. In it she shares various insightsContinue reading “Getting to Know You”

There is incredible beauty in winter at Limberlost. We hope you will enjoy the following photos taken in January and February 2019 by Kimberley Roll, Randy Lehman and Terri Gorney. Red-tailed hawk in flight. It is a year round resident at Limberlost. Photo by Kimberley Roll. The Loblolly Marsh has a quiet beauty in winter.Continue reading “Winter at Limberlost”

By Curt Burnette One of the birds that Gene Stratton-Porter studied, photographed, and wrote about was the loggerhead shrike. For her nature book “What I Have Done With Birds”, she photographed a nest and the young birds in it at an oil lease east of Geneva, just east of the Wabash River. She was enamoredContinue reading “Wherein we reflect on the “butcherbird”, studied by Mrs. Porter, but a Limberlost resident no more”

By Curt Burnette The Limberlost Swamp was a large wetland. It was roughly two miles wide and ten miles long, stretching from northeast of Geneva (Rainbow Bottom) to several miles southwest of town (Loblolly Marsh), and spanning 13,000 acres (20 square miles) before its destruction. The Limberlost contained swamp and marsh interspersed with higher, drierContinue reading “Wherein is discussed how the Limberlost Swamp, Grand Kankakee Marsh, and Great Black Swamp share a past history and future prospects”

Curt Burnette came to Limberlost in January 2012. In November of that year, he wrote his first column for the Limberlost Notebook in the “Berne Tri-Weekly” (now the “Berne Witness”). We thought it would be fun to take a look back at Curt’s first column. The Limberlost Notebook Wherein a Swamp Man Heeds the CallContinue reading “Curt Burnette and Limberlost”