Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Chain O Lakes State Park, Albion, IN 9-3 to 6, 2014

This is a beautiful but crowded park. There are 400 sites where 250 would be better, the bathrooms and showers are quite tired and grungy, and here's not a site in the place that's anywhere near level (other than the host sites). There are 10 hiking trails from easy to rugged, ranging from ½ mile to three miles in length. The park is made up of 13 lakes, some connected and glacier action from the Ice Age is responsible for much of its surface form and geologic makeup. There are steeply rolling hills, bogs, and glacial eskers throughout the park. Since we were here specifically to visit the Gene Stratton Porter Limberlost North site, and we also wanted to get up to Shipshewana, we didn't take advantage of any of the history or hiking here, but it is an incredibly popular park, as the number of camping sites indicate.

So far, we can't say much good about the folks who work here either – the breaker in the electrical hookup kept snapping off, so Rich unplugged the RV and went down to the office, told a woman there about it, and she said she'd let someone know. Thirty minutes passed and no one showed up so Rich went back. The office was closed but the security worker was there and she had never told him but said he'd be there shortly. He finally showed up with a couple other fellows, bumbled around a bit, remembered he didn't have his regular truck (or tools) so they had to go back for it. Once they returned, the young man was showing his two trainees the proper and safe way to replace a breaker. The only problem is, he hadn't shut off the electricity to the unit and when he stuck his finger in to point out the buss bar, he touched it and got zapped!

The first day here, we drove up to Rome City and visited the Gene Stratton Porter Memorial Society's Limberlost North. I've loved her books – especially Freckles and Girl of the Limberlost – since I was a kid, so it was a delight to find out there were two museums dedicated to her memory and that the Limberlost Swamp was being reclaimed after having been drained and used for farmland. We'll visit Limberlost South next week.

During her career, GeneAt the height of her career, Gene wrote eleven novels, nine nature studies, three children's books, and two books of poems and essays. At the peak of her popularity, she had five books on the million-seller list – only 50 other books met the mark that year and she is estimated to have had 50 million readers world-wide. Twenty-five movies were made based on her books, two of which were filmed by her own production company but released shortly before her death in 1924 at the age of 61.

The house we visited today was rustic Queen Anne in style, designed by Gene (the second rustic Queen Anne she designed (the first is in Geneva which we will visit next week) and she oversaw the construction as well.

Begun in 1912 and completed in 1914, there was a forced-air furnace with floor vents throughout the two-story house, the island in the kitchen was on casters, to allow it to be moved around as she wished and a raised cutting board was fixed on one end, with a metal cover to keep it clean when not in use. There were large tip-out bins in the kitchen for flour and sugar – they needed to have several weeks worth of food on hand during the winter months in case of bad storms and deep show. The floors were all oak, the paneling in the entry, stairway, and dining room was cherry, and the plaster on the walls was strengthened with horsehair! The fireplace surround in the parlor was covered with stones sent to her by friends and all of the then 48 states were represented. There were also stones from Central and South America. Nearly hidden in the surround is a butterfly made of rock and a picture of a soldier from the Revolutionary War. In Gene's library, there was a fireplace and that surround was entirely of pudding stone. Her conservatory was in the back corner of the house and the two outside walls were mostly windows which could be opened in good weather.

In this house, she had a dark room built especially for that purpose instead of working in the bathroom, as in her Geneva home.

Gene had a private telephone line, in a time when party lines were the norm, there were still some of the original push-button light switches in use in the home, and the second story was blessed with a sleeping porch which, when at the rear of the house, one could see and smell the flowers in the formal garden as well as sleep. The home, built of black cedar logs from the area, was in wonderful repair while the log visitor center, built in 1999, already needed some of the logs replaced! I could happily live in this beautiful home in the woods with a view of the lake in front.

Born in 1863, Geneva Straton was the 12th child in the family. She never cared for the traditional “female” chores and since her mother was bedridden because of the after effects of typhoid fever for much of her life, Gene was allowed to go off by herself as long as she showed up for meals. Left to her own devices, she explored the farm and as she grew older, the Limberlost Swamp. [This reminded me on one of my escapades when I was a child of about 10. We lived in the country, and although I had three sisters, I often wandered over the pasture behind our house and along the road next to the swamp where we heard alligators calling. I had seen some wild iris about 15 feet into the swamp and just had to dig the up and plant them at home. In spite of being terrified, I waded into the swamp with a shovel and pail, dug a few of the iris up, took them home and planted them in the swale along the side of the house. I can't say they florished, but we did enjoy them for several years. I never did go back into the swamp, though, so she was far braver than I!]

Throughout her life, Gene gained a prodigious knowledge of and love for all nature, and was well-known as a writer, artist, musician, photographer. After Freckles was made into a movie in 1917 by Paramount, she was so dissatisfied with the result, she moved to California and headed up her own film company. She built a huge house in California but was killed when a trolly ran into the car in which she was riding before she ever moved in. Gene Stratton Porter was a true entrepreneur before it was even usual for women to work outside the home!

Visiting this site was wonderful and brought back memories of many happy hours reading her books and talking about them to my mom and daughter.

The next day, we took a drive up to Shipshewana, about an hour's drive north of Albion. We had been told about this little town by several folks when we were in Goshen for the RV repair but weren't in the right frame of mind to take an extra drive. The town is primarily Amish with lots of shops – my favorite was full of beautifully crafted furniture. We also bought some groceries at the Amish grocery store, but the highlight of the day was a delicious meal at the Shipshewana Auction Restaurant. Rich and I both had the fish dinner, which included sweet potato fries, a fresh vegetable, and dessert. There was more food than one person needed to eat on each plate and it was good home cooking brought to us by friendly Amish ladies.


Although we were happy to leave this campground, we enjoyed the area and would like to come back and do more exploring nearby.  


































No comments:

Post a Comment