Oregon, IL Sculpture Trail

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Once the other RV ladies headed home, I stayed at Lowden SP for an additional night to bring Colt to the dealer for winterizing and warranty work.  I spent some of the day looking for the sculptures located around Oregon and just some other wanderings thru parks.

Makin' Hay by Daniel Ingebritson

The Bountiful Bench by Christine Murphy

Agriculture, Mother of Civilization by David Seagraves

The Soldier's Monument by Lorado Taft (dedicated in 1916) honors veterans from the Civil War, Spanish-American War, War of 1812, Mexican War, and WW I.

 

Paths of Conviction, Footsteps of Fate by Jeff Adams.  One side shows Abraham Lincoln.

 

The other side shows Black Hawk.

This little fountain was not part of the sculpture tour, but it was cute, showing 2 children hugging fish.

Solar Reef by Andrew Langoussis representing the sun.  Around it's perimeter are embellishments of landscape elements such as fields, hills and structures.

 

From the Waters Comes My Bounty by Ray Kobald located on the Rock River.

Some miscellaneous sites around town.  The spillway with Oregon in the background.

 

 

The only water fowl I found.  Canadian geese.

 

A last bit of Autumn color

The Black Hawk statue looking over the Rock River.  I'd guess about 3 stories tall.

View of the Rock River from the Black Hawk statue.

The camp hosts and I had the whole campground to ourselves on Sunday.

Zorro, a good camp dog.  Maybe watching a squirrel.

Lots of Oak trees.  I have no idea how some of the larger rigs get into the tight spots between trees.  My site was shown as a pull-through, but to follow the road in the correct direction was impossible due to trees on the road, so I just backed out the same way I parked.

Halloween Weekend at Lowden SP, IL

One more camping trip for the maiden year of Colt.  Two of the ladies from the women RV forum and I met at Lowden SP, IL.

Friday, October 30, 2015 was arrival day.  After we were all settled in we did a short hike in the park, following Heckman Train down to the Rock River.

Eileen (left) and Kathy (Right)

We came upon a long flight of stairs, that we guessed led up to the statue of Black Hawk.  I knew Zorro couldn't do that many stairs and wasn't sure I could do them either, so we just continued on along the river.

 

On the way back, and before we head up the trail, I tried out the timer for the first time on the camera.  It wasn't as cold as we look and we definitely do not look like happy campers! :-)

Saturday, October 31st was a rainy day so we decided to do inside things.  First stop, a small art museum, the Eagles Nest Art Colony, located on the second floor of the library in Oregon, IL.



The actual Black Hawk statue that looks over the river from the campground is being restored and is under wraps, but this is what the statue looks like.  The real Black Hawk statue was made by Lorado Taft in 1911 in concrete.

The museum also had a small version of The Blind by Lorado Taft.  The full size statue is located at the University of Illinois. The woman at the museum said all of the figures in the stature are blind except for the child being held up by the woman in front.

Frank O. Lowden, former governor of Illinois and who the state park is named.

We then headed to Sycamore, IL to their Museum of Natural History.

 

Only one live exhibit, Emerald the iguana.

Us with Sam the grizzly.