Pages

Monday, September 9, 2013

Buffalo Rock SP & Middle East Conflict Memorial Wall

Along the I-80 corridor in Illinois, runs the I & M Canal.  This canal was a manmade link between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan by way of the Illinois River, Chicago portage and the Chicago River.   Boats were pulled thru the canal by mules on shore. 

The I & M corridor contains many state parks including Buffalo Rock state park in Ottawa, Illinois. This SP was once a mine.  When the park was designated in 1983, Michael Heizer was commissioned to create a natural feature call the Effigy Tumuli.  The feature contains figures of a snake, turtle, catfish, frog & water strider.  I could not see the figures as much as I tried.  Maybe they are really only visible from the air.
Below image of the effigy taken from the parks website



Views of the Illinois River from and the River Bluff trail.

 
 

Not far from Buffalo Rock SP is the city of Marseilles, IL.  Located along the Illinois River is a memorial to Illinois service men and women killed during conflicts in the Middle East.  There is also a small museum which contains personal items from some of these soldiers.  An emotional site to see.  While there, I met an Illinois State Trooper who was traveling from Peoria back to his district in Chicago.  He was getting a etching copy of his brothers name from the wall.  It was his first visit to the wall, and didn't have time to visit the small museum, but I'm sure he'll be back in the future.  He mentioned bringing a few bottles of beer for his brother, since other visitors left some by the wall also.

The museum in small for now.  They are still recovering from being flooded out in the rains this past spring, but are slowly getting the displays dried out and back in place.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment