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.
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