OLNEY, ILLINOIS—A SQUIRRELY TOWN 1-28-02
Howdy Everyone!
I had a great time in Olney, home of the white squirrels. Olney first saw the
unique animals in the early 1900s. In 1925, a city ordinance was passed that
protects the albino colony and a white squirrel has the right-of-way on any
street in Olney! In 1943 a bill was introduced in the legislature to protect the
white squirrels. The Illinois State Law is as follows: Chapter 61, Article 174,
Paragraph 40. "It is unlawful for any person to take white squirrels in
this state at any time." A more pampered animal would be difficult to find!
Residents delight in cracking nuts and ears of corn for the pink-eyed creatures,
many of which are tame. Gwen drove me around town looking for "squirrel
sightings," and indeed we found several. At one point we were walking
around someones yard, each of us with a camera, when a gentleman drove up,
rolled down his window, and said "Come over here! There's two of them in
this yard!" And he was right! Without a doubt, he knew exactly what we were
trying to do! Gwen gave me a magnet, and also a t-shirt with 2 white squirrels
on it. Cross Harness & Embroidery gave me a baseball cap with a white
squirrel embroidered on it. Spieth Photography developed a roll of film for me
for free, and gave me a new roll of film to replace it. And today when I gave a
talk at Olney Central College to the Student Nurses Association, they presented
me with 2 t-shirts from the nursing program.
People were so nice in this town! The newspaper did a story, and the radio did
an interview. In fact, because the radio announced where I was spending the
wkend at, I received 2 phone calls from 2 people who recently had brain surgery
because of their epilepsy! One call was from the parents of Courtney, a 5th
grader who had surgery last August. We got together and visited for quite
awhile. We even took some pictures of Courtney and I. The other was a 39 yr old
man who had surgery just last month, and has so far been seizure-free. In fact,
today when I went to a printing shop to have copies made, the lady knew the
fellow who just had surgery and gave me my copies for free. On Saturday, Mrs Eva
Fessel, curator, gave me the grand tour of the Carnegie Library and the Heritage
House, even though the 2 museums are generally closed in the winter. I really
enjoyed seeing the museums. It was there that I discovered that Robert Ridgway,
leading American Ornithologist, was born near here at Mount Carmel, IL in 1850.
As a youth he became interested in birds and sketched many specimens around his
home. At the age of 17, he was appointed zoologist on a geological survey of the
40th parallel. From 1874 to 1929, he was connected with the Smithsonian
Institution, first as an ornithologist and later as a curator of birds. Ridgway
published extensively in his field and related areas from 1869 to 1929. His
experience with the problems of color and color description in bird portraits
resulted in a work entitled Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, which proved
valuable in many fields besides ornithology. He also wrote an authoritative
eight-volume study of the birds of North and Middle America. In 1916, Ridgway
retired to Olney to continue his research at his home, which he called
Larchmound. He also developed an 18-acre tract called Bird Haven, as a bird
sanctuary and experimental area for the cultivation of trees and plants not
native to this region. He died at Olney on March 25, 1929. I had a great time in
Olney over the wkend, and met a lot of neat people and special friends. I know
that someday I'll be back down this road again. On Tues I'll give a talk at
Lawrencei High School and will then walk across the Wabash River and on in to
Vincent, Indiana, my tenth state. Y'all take care and have a great day! KB
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