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- Deer peek out to watch us watching them!
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- Three juvenile bald eagles
Ernie was our 87 year-old tour guide, having grown up on the property before the Arsenal forced his family to move. This land has been part of his whole life, so he shared lots of information about different families who lived there, the water czar, the wives tales that they told about weather. He showed us where the four one-room schoolhouses used to sit, until the first four-room schoolhouse opened. The ‘new’ school had gender segregated classrooms with a horsebarn in the middle, where the students ‘parked’ their horses.
Ernie’s stories were an added bonus on the tour about the wildlife refuge and the evolution of a military arsenal to an open space, all natural habitat for hundreds of animals and native plants. Three lakes are on the property, one of which had literally hundreds of ducks on it. There are over 500 deer and 44 buffalo living in the refuge as well as bald eagles, owls, prairie dogs and numerous other types of birds.
This tour is definitely worth a couple hours of your time. I learned all sorts of interesting facts about animals and ecosystems as well as Ernie’s perspective of the past 87 years on that land. I encourage anyone looking for something to do to go spend some time at the Wildlife Refuge.
