Saturday, July 19, 2014

You can never be too rich ...

... or spend too much time on the prairie. So M.E.M. and I, perhaps others, are headed this morning for a prairie walk over around Medora sponsored by Region 6 of the Iowa Prairie Network. Medora is a ghost town (although the Medora Church still is there) at the intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Warren County Road G76 between Osceola and Indianola.

Gather at 10 a.m. at Hickory Hills Park just south of Medora, then head as a group to Martha Skillman's prairie remnants a couple of miles northwest, then north a little to the Medora Prairie. Should be fun, or at least fun as I define it.

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Speaking of prairie, I noticed Thursday that the prairie blazing stars --- which provide one of the best Midwest prairie shows --- were just about ready to bloom.

The best display in Lucas County will be right along Highway 65 south of Derby. Highway 65 is closed this summer, however, for paving and I'll be trying to figure out in the next week or so if it's possible to get there from here.

If all else fails, it would be possible to walk in on the Cinder Path, but that would be quite a hike. So I'm thinking that it should be possible to approach from the west, cross the closed highway and reach the big anhydrous ammonia tank that marks the best place to park and view.

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I went over to the dark side a month or so ago and ordered a digital subscription to The Des Moines Register and guess I'm kind of getting my money's worth --- at least with an "introductory" price. We'll see after full price kicks in.

In any case, there are a couple of stories of interest in today's edition.

One involves Iowa's Country School Grant Program, the only one of its kind in the country, that aids local non-profits with surviving rural school houses to care for. Although the Lucas County Historical Society is not mentioned, we've used the program twice in recent years --- matching grant funds with local funds. The much-appreciated program helped us replace the Puckerbrush School roof one year, then deal with near-collapse of the building's support structure another.

This is a grant program that has been under-utilized, mostly I think because of lack of awareness. The Register article could help to change that, however.

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The other story involves the remains of Sgt. Robert "Bobby" Howard, who will be buried with military honors at 11 a.m. today --- some 70 years after his death --- in Sunset View Cemetery north of Moulton (located in Appanoose County southeast of Centerville).

Howard was declared missing in action after his bomber went down over Germany during World War II, on April 19, 1945. His remains were discovered in Germany during 2012 and identified with DNA testing.

2 comments:

Linda OConnell said...

Frank Highway 65 is now open from Humeston to the Derby. They are expecting that it will be open all the way from Lucas to Humeston next week with flag men doing the one lane thing as they finish up the shoulders etc. So you shouldn't have any problem getting to see the flowers if it is next week.

Frank D. Myers said...

Thanks for the road report, Linda. I'm going to get down that way this week to take a look then!