Upland Wildlife Cookout
Here’s your chance, Road Trips Foodies, to sample roasted raccoon, smoked squirrel and duck! Set your GPS for the Gene Stratton-Porter Cabin, 1205 Pleasant Point, Rome City, Indiana. Get there between 6 and 9 p.m. on September 25, 2010, for the Upland Wildlife Cookout! Cost for all this deliciousness is $5 per person.
There’s even more on the menu at this one-of-a-kind cookout. Join hunters, conservationists and local wildlife experts for an evening of new tastes and information. (Yes, there will be s’mores for dessert!)
Get there early and explore the two-mile-long Pat Bolman Heritage Tree Trail. It includes benches for the occasional stop to enjoy the woods.
The Indiana author Gene Stratton-Porter called this her “Cabin in Wildflower Woods”. It’s on the shore of Sylvan Lake, near Rome City, Indiana. Her writing career began when her first piece was accepted by Recreation magazine (for which she received $16!). She wrote regularly for this publication for two years and then joined the staff of Outing, a national natural history magazine. A year later, she decided she might be able to reach a larger audience if she “sugar-coated” her nature studies with a veneer of fiction. This marked the beginning of Porter’s formula for her novels. Porter’s first two novels were Song of the Cardinal (1903) and Freckles (1904).
What is now the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site was Porter’s second adult home, built in 1913. The vast, undeveloped forest of this site provided a rich source of material for her nature studies, writings and photography. Porter developed the wildflower gardens using plants from all around the state. The gardens, arbor, orchard and many scenic paths are still intact. The site currently encompasses 125 acres of land, 20 of which were part of Porter’s original property.
“The Cabin in Wildflower Woods,” designed by Porter, is a two-story cabin with exterior walls of Wisconsin cedar logs. Local wild cherry was used to panel the entrance hall and dining room. There are three extraordinary fireplaces on the first floor: one of polished English brick, one constructed of Indiana artifacts and stones collected from other states and one of puddin’ stone. Much of the furniture and personal memorabilia, including Porter’s library, are preserved at the home. In her lifetime (1863-1924), Porter authored 12 novels, seven nature studies, three books of poetry, children’s books and numerous magazine articles.
