Trehopr1 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:08 pm
I had to look this up mind you but, Limberlost is a state historic site located in Adams county, Indiana. It is a region of some 13,000 acres of mostly forested land along with some swampland included. The author of the book apparently wrote 6 assorted novels while living there for 18 years. Most were wildlife related...
Indeed - it is in Indiana, and the Limberlost was, like anything you can plow under in Indiana, pretty much destroyed. It was in the head waters of the Wabash River, which has severe flooding problems and is the LARGEST contributor of nutrients to the gulf of Mexico. So a lot of players are now involved in restoration of wet forests and meadows in the Limberlost area. Our state DNR is especially active in the area, trying to bring back a decent sized piece of this habitat.
The author of the book, Gene Stratton Porter was a huge celebrity in her day. Several of the books were turned into movies in the 1920's, and she lived well, traveling between Hollywood and NE Indiana. Most of the books were fantasy - nature stories - and in my opinion, did not age well. Very Victorian and silly if you ask me. Moths of the Limberlost was an outlier - real natural history and early nature photography. In national news, Gene was killed in a car accident in California during the peak of her fame - broadsided at a railroad crossing. A very spectacular end for a celebrity. She helped found the Isaack Walton League and produced her own movies - quite a legacy for a woman 100 years ago!
Here in Indiana, we have a "Gene Stratton Porter State Historic Site" at her working cabin on Sylvan Lake (FYI - thought to be one of the first introduction sites in the Midwest for invasive glossy buckthorn!).
At The Nature Conservancy, our most generous Indiana donor grew up during the Gene Stratton Porter era, and she loved a character named "Swamp Angel" from one of the books. And so of course, we named a site near Sylvan Lake "Swamp Angel Nature Preserve" in a never ending quest to keep our donor engaged. It's actually, one of the nicest alkaline fen complexes in the Midwest, composed of three small marl lakes surrounded by peatlands. A fourth lake basin is disconnected from the others, and supports a wonderful acid bog as well. It's one of our best sites, but we only own about half of the land required to ensure that it is really conserved.
John