Portland Arch

Doug and I took off on a little pre-anniversary getaway on Thursday. On the agenda was a visit to the Portland Arch Nature Preserve and National Natural Landmark, near Fountain, Indiana.

This is the natural sandstone arch, carved by a small tributary of Bear Creek, which is the focal point of the Nature Preserve.

This area has a special significance to me, not only for its beauty, but because it was once owned by my mother's family.

In its heyday, Portland Arch was a resort area, apparently drawing boatloads of people and the big bands of the day. I don't know a great deal about the history...just fragments that I've heard through the years. But, as I understand it, Mom's family borrowed $3,000 against the property to build a dam, apparently for the purpose of generating electricity for the resort. Shortly after that, the Great Depression hit our country, and the family lost the property.

After that, it was a Boy Scout camp, until accidents on the cliffs caused the Boy Scouts to close their camp. Since then, it has been a Nature Preserve.

The loop trail through the preserve is heavily wooded. This spider's web caught my eye, with the sun glistening on it.

A view of part of the trail.

Wildflowers along the trail.

Next to the Portland Arch Nature Preserve is an old cemetery, where several members of my mother's family are buried, including her parents and a brother. Several of her father's family members are also buried there. So the cemetery was also on our agenda to visit.

We were saddened to see that some of the huge oak trees had been cut down since our last visit.

Here, you can see the size of one of the stumps. We're estimating that they would measure about six feet across.

A pair of turkey vultures were sunning themselves in a tree at the cemetery, apparently an adult and a juvenile. The adult stretched its wings in preparation for flying as I snapped this shot.

This is the juvenile, just taking off. Unfortunately, I didn't get a clear shot. Operator error.

There was a second trail, through another part of the Nature Preserve, which we walked after our visit to the cemetery.

Along that trail, we found this colony of honeybees busily going about their work. I know it's hard to see them in the picture, but there were so many of them that the sound is what first caught our attention.

This butterfly posed just long enough for one shot. Fortunately, it was a pretty good one.

This cicada was too lethargic to have been healthy. He wasn't dead, but he wasn't exactly lively, either.

One last photo for today...

My grandmother may have taught school in this old schoolhouse in Fountain, Indiana. It has now been converted to a residence, and a very pretty one, at that.