Voyage Mardi

Paul Klenck July 15, 2019

Kitchi Onigaming is the Ojibwe name for the eight mile trek connecting Lake Superior to the Pigeon River and bypassing the great falls of that river.

The French Voyageurs called it The Great Carrying Place, and it was the fulcrum for the fur trade. The North Men would funnel all the beaver furs they collected through Canada through the waterways on the birch bark canoes that the Indians taught them to build and use. The fur traders from the east—mainly Montreal—would travel the Great Lakes to meet the voyageurs at what today we call Grand Portage.

In late July, the voyageurs, natives and east traders would meet at their annual Rendezvous, exchanging trade goods for furs and have a big party.

By 1784 Grand Portage was the largest settlement in the American West, and the North West Company, owned the Highland Scots, built a palisade and buildings to facilitate the trade.

Kitchen and Grand Hall, Grand Portage National Monument

Reenactors demonstrate the skills the voyageuers used such as creating rope, or represent a trader in the Great Hall wearing a beaver hat.

It took awhile after the Revolution to finalize the border between the new United States and British Canada. The border was finally settled on the Pigeon River about four miles north of the settlement, so the British moved the trading post north of the river and Grand Portage faded into history. Sixty years ago, the Ojibwe donated the land for the creation of the National Monument.

I first visited Grand Portage thirty years ago when I arbitrated a work dispute for the Custom agents. On my drive up the coast, I nearly drove off the road watching a bald eagle swoop down to the lake and grab a fish out of the water. It doesn’t take much effort here to transport yourself back in time.

Most of the land between the National Monument and the state park right on the national border is reservation. There is also the oldest church in Minnesota established in 1731 by French missionaries. The Minnesota Historical Society published a history of the church and Grand Portage containing more detail than you’d likely want to know. But the wildflowers in bloom around the church and graveyard provide another opportunity to rest in the north light along the Lake.

Holy Rosary Church, Grand Portage, Minnesota

Cascading Gifts

Paul Klenck July 9, 2019

I often plan photo shots with some detail, but this morning I hoped for the best. I’m traveling in one of my favorite places—the North Shore of Lake Superior. I got to my hotel—the Cascade Lodge—late and didn’t know what might be good places in the morning to shoot. I found a nice pull-over spot.

I then drove a short way down to a wayside next to the Lake and walked to the shore. Some folks had laid out a delightful cairn.

Then I found the nearby state park—Cascade River—and hiked to the cascade.

I wish I could upload the pine smell and the bird song, but here are some of the wild flowers.

And now its time for breakfast and processing the gifts the morning gave. If you’re ever driving the North Shore, I recommend french toast with blueberry compote at the Cascade. And then refresh your soul with all the other gifts that surround you!

Freedom Riders

Paul Klenck June 25, 2019

One of Barack Obama’s last acts as president was to establish the Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston, Alabama. You can read his full proclamation of January 13, 2017. In May 1961 groups of Freedom Riders boarded a Trailways and a Greyhound bus from D.C. to New Orleans to test whether bus station facilities in the South were complying with Supreme Court cases that struck down state laws compelling segregation in interstate travel, building on Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, . The Greyhound bus stopped in the station in Anniston, Alabama, where a mob broke windows and slashed tires before a police escort was able to clear a path for the bus.

Six miles out of town, the tires gave out and the driver pulled over. The mob threw a firebomb into the bus, and tried to keep the Freedom Riders from escaping. A freelance photographer, Joe Postiglione, captured images that were published across the country forcing the issue before the public.

The Trailways bus was attacked in Birmingham. By the end of the month, Attorney General Robert Kennedy petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue regulations banning segregation on bus carrier and terminals, and the regulations were issued later that year. Along with the Freedom Riders, other campaigns by the Southern Christina Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee focused attention on voting rights, and my friend and St. Louis labor attorney, Chris Hexter participated in the Freedom Summer in Mississippi to expand education opportunities and mentoring to African-American students.

The National Park Services Civil Rights Trail recognizes and honors many of these efforts. The Anniston bus terminal is not yet open to the public, but I asked to be let in to see how the development was coming. The S&H sign in the photo above and other relics of the events are stored and awaiting display. Below is the old kitchen facilities in the station. Hopefully, in a few years, the facility will be ready to better tell the story. The location where the bus was firebombed will also be developed, though I suspect the current administration is in no hurry to fund these efforts.

Freedom Riders National Monument bus station

Festival Season

Paul Klenck June 18, 2019

Tis the season for summer heritage festivals. So a cool, rainy weekend in Itasca was a perfect setting for the Chicago Scottish Festival and Highland Games. And what says Scotland more than a Heelan Coo (aka Highland Cow).

Perhaps you feel like throwing your weight around.

Or playing pipes

Rugby seems to be made for playing in the rain, though I wasn’t aware that giving a mate a wedgie was part of the match.

The Dogs of Scotland Agility Show was great fun, especially for the dogs.

Frankie the Border Collie winning the high jump

And a wee taste in the Whisky Tent.

McLean County, Illinois

Paul Klenck June 4, 2019

Going downstate last week, there were some great stormy skies in Central Illinois. Getting off the interstate helped to find some more scenic foregrounds. McLean County has provided some great subjects over the years, so here are some images from this week and past years. The first are from this week, where you can see the crops are very late this year because of too much rain to get the seeds in.

Near Funks Grove is a delightful little nature center called Sugar Grove. They put out a lot of bird feeders, so it’s a great spot to find some birds. Hummingbirds were swarming around the feeders at this lovely view.

The summer clouds are irresistible.

The McLean County History Museum is in the old courthouse in downtown Bloomington.

Night streetscape in Bloomington, Illinois

Fort Smith National Historic Site, Arkansas

Paul Klenck May 28, 2019

Fort Smith was established in 1817 to help reduce tensions between the native Osage and the Cherokee who were being forcibly removed into the new “Indian Territory.” The fort later served as a supply depot during the U.S.-Mexico War and the western migration. As shown in the exhibit below, the fort sits on the Arkansas River. When I visit on May 1, it stormed heavily the night before and continued raining, and the grounds were wet and the river high. Last night’s news showed flooding throughout Ft. Smith from the storms that continue to batter the central U.S..

Fort Smith National Historic Site, Arkansas

The oldest remaining building is the Commissary built in the 1830s, to house supplies for the western army throughout the middle of the century.

The barracks were constructed in 1850s and converted into the Federal Court for the Western District of Arkansas in 1871. This was the western frontier and the Fort has been featured in many movies. The courtroom has been refurbished to look as it did when “Hanging Judge” Issac Parker presided for over 21 years, hearing 13,000 criminal cases for Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Although he opposed the death penalty, it was a mandatory sentence for federal murder and rape cases, and he sentenced 160 men to death. The jail below the courthouse was a dismal cell with no plumbing or ventilation, and held up to 50 prisoners.

The former barracks now serves as the National Historic Site visitor center. Across the Arkansas River is the state of Oklahoma. Fortunately, the bridge was open when I visited, so I was able to cross over and visit my 50th state. What a stunning vista. Perhaps the flooding has moved the litter downstream.

KC WWI

Paul Klenck May 21, 2019

In 1926, Kansas City dedicated the Liberty Memorial museum in commemoration of the Great War. Congress designated it as the country’s official WWI museum in 2004, and it was reopened two years later with an expanded, renovated facility that is thorough and breathtaking. The museum entrance is under the 217 foot memorial tower.

National World War I Museum and Memorial, Kansas City, MO

The entrance to the museum is a glass walkway over a field of 9,000 poppies, with each flower representing 1,000 combatant deaths.

The circular exhibit space starts with the origins of the war, and the first half of the circle captures the conflict before America entered the fight. There are incredible artifacts and life-size dioramas, and interactive exhibits to understand the history.

The first half of the story ends in a dramatic auditorium with screens showing a movie detailing the U.S. decision to enter the war.

The museum examines the home front as well as the battlefront, and details the peace process that sowed seeds for the conflict to continue in less than two decades.

The museum is in a park with a dramatic view into downtown Kansas City that is especially scenic at night when you can see the artificial flame atop the memorial.

Oliver Brown

Paul Klenck May 13, 2019

Oliver Brown’s daughters attended Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas. Kansas had a long history of encouraging former slaves to settle in the state after the Civil War. It’s high schools were integrated and the school board attempted to make its Black elementary schools equal to its exclusively White elementary schools. Oliver Brown, a minister, and other local civil rights activists sued the Board saying their children should be able to attend their neighborhood school.

Monroe Elementary School, Topeka, Kansas

Oliver Brown v. Topeka Board of Education was one of five cases consolidated and brought to the Supreme Court by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund seeking to reverse the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson case that upheld racial segregation in public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were “equal in quality.” The U.S. District Court in Topeka was compelled to follow the Plessy precedence, but accepted the Plaintiffs’ psychological evidence that African-American children were adversely affected by segregation.

Sixty-five years ago this week on May 17, 1954, the Court unanimously reversed Plessy stating the racial segregation in Kansas, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia violated the 14th amendment to the Constitution (and the District of Columbia, not subject to the 14th amendment, violated the 5th amendment). Brown has now been the controlling law longer than Plessy, but in the last 30 years, segregated schools have tripled in the U.S..

Monroe school is now a National Historic Site. A former classroom is now a Junior Ranger station for children to learn about this history.

Classroom, Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Extensive exhibits review the history of civil rights battles and the on-going struggles. I wondered why the parking lot was overflowing when I visited on a weekday morning. I was surprised to find the Topeka federal court judge in attendance for a naturalization service swearing in 50 new U.S. citizens in the school auditorium. A most fitting historical memorial.

There is one National Historic Site that is still an operating high school. Three years after the Brown decision, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus stated the federal government lacked the authority to desegregate Little Rock Central High School. President Eisenhower ordered federal troops to ensure the Little Rock Nine students could attend the school. It is a bit jarring to turn the corner and see the ‘50s black-and-white news photos, there in front of you coming to life with parents’ cars and buses pulling up to pick up students.

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Arkansas

Just last year, Topeka unveiled a 130 foot mural by Michael Toombs across from Monroe School celebrating and exploring justice and equality.

Vicksburg

Paul Klenck May 6, 2019

A remarkable coincidence of the Civil War was the Union victory at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 to stop Gen. Lee’s invasion of the North, and Gen. U.S. Grant’s total victory at Vicksburg the next day. Grant’s relentless campaign in the West got Lincoln’s attention and resulted in his promotion to command the whole Army. The Confederate Army’s control of Vicksburg on a high, strategic overlook allowed them to control traffic on the Mississippi River. The image below shows Vicksburg view of a giant U-shaped bend in the river. This year’s flooding has resulted in the river overflowing the center of the bend.

Grant’s first assaults in May were brutal but unsuccessful. His army surrounded the city, and began a relentless 40 day siege. Years after the battle, veterans returned to the battlefield and provided detailed descriptions of locations, encampments and battles. Today, the peaceful landscape is dotted with memorials and with blue signs detailing Union positions and maneuvers and red signs for the Confederate troops. A huge portion of the Union Army was from Illinois, and lead miners from the state contributed to one of the most dramatic and brutal events of the war.

To attempt to break through the confederate defense, the miners tunneled under the fortification and filled it with over a ton of gunpowder. The explosion blew open a huge crater that Union troops stormed into. However, they were trapped by Confederate soldiers firing down into the crater. The miners dug a new mine, but the surrender on Independence Day made that assault unnecessary.

One of the more colorful characters from Illinois commanded an artillery unit in the siege. John Wesley Powell studied at the Illinois Institute, which would later become Wheaton College. As an abolitionist expecting a war, he studied military science and engineering, and enlisted as a private when the war began. He was quickly promoted to captain and would be a lieutenant colonel before the war was over. In the Battle of Shiloh, he lost his right arm, but returned to fight in Vicksburg. After the war, he was a major explorer of the Rocky Mountain region, and despite the loss of his arm completed the first run of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 on a wooden boat. He did the run again in two years. After creating the Museum of Anthropology at Illinois State University, he became director of Ethnology at the Smithsonian until his death in 1902.

The centennial of the Civil War was being commemorated when I started school. I remember the news of an exciting discovery of a sunken ironclad ship in the Mississippi. The U.S.S. Cairo was named after the Illinois city on the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It was the first ship sunk by a torpedo and was buried in the Yazoo RIver mud north of Vicksburg. After discovery, it was raised and preserved. the museum has an incredible collection of the artifacts that were found.

The Union victory cut off Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas from the rest of the Confederacy and crippled the South’s communication and transportation.

Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi

Double V - Tuskegee Airmen

Paul Klenck April 23, 2019

Posting live from a fantastic National Historic Site dedicated to the Airmen from Tuskegee, Alabama. Starting with an overview of the field and hangar.

Exhibits in the hangars contain reconstruction of training rooms, artifacts, and best of all, recordings from the men and women who worked and trained there.

Double V: Fighting for Victory at Hime and Abroad. They left a legacy shaping our country's freedoms.

Rebuilding churches

Paul Klenck April 16, 2019

Unfortunately, the devastatingly sad news of the fire at Notre Dame in Paris is an old story. The architecture is often daring, the maintenance expensive, and fighting fires, earthquakes and other natural challenges is heightened by the architectural extravagance. In 1950, a fire started in the roof of St. Alphonsus Church on the north side of Chicago while repairs were occurring. It was one of the largest fires Chicago. My future father-in-law, who was baptized and buried out of St. Al’s is quoted in historical record.

From the book Lake View by Matt Nickeson, 2014 — From the book *Lake View* by Matt Nickeson, 2014

The church’s interior was rebuilt and has subsequently been restored. It looks better than when I married John’s daughter there!

In 2010, I visited Socorro, New Mexico, but when I went to the Old San Miguel Mission, it had been ordered closed the month before. The parish was founded in 1598, and the current building began in 1615. Over the centuries it was damaged and repaired numerous times. However, earlier in 2010, a neighboring pueblo church collapsed. Engineers determined that the efforts to preserve the pueblo churches by covering them in concrete stucco actually trapped moisture and was causing their decay. In this image, you can see where engineers removed stucco at the front of the church to examine the conditions.

San Miguel was immediately closed and tested to see if it could be saved. Pastor Andrew Pavlak, who is from Chicago, let me in the church to take some pictures. All artwork and relics and half the pews had been removed. An image I took that day was used on the cover of a regional telephone book (in case you remember those historical artifacts) and the proceeds were part of my donation to the church’s restoration.

The church was able to be restored and reopened in time to celebrate its 400th anniversary in 2014. My donation to Notre Dame will soon be made. I have no doubt that the Easter Mass of Resurrection will one day again be celebrated in that cathedral.

York Minster

Paul Klenck April 9, 2019

The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York is one of the most breathtaking structures to experience. A Christian church occupied this space in York, England since the early 7th century. After several churches fell or were destroyed, construction on the current building began in 1220 to compete with the newly constructed Canterbury cathedral. It was completed and consecrated in 1472. How would you like this as your backyard view? The Chapter House, completed in the 1290s is under the conical tower below the central tower which was built in 1420 after the previous tower collapsed!

York Minster as viewed from the York City wall

The religious community would gather for both prayer and business under the ceiling of the Chapter House. Seats were built into the walls. The builders and artists included images of themselves and other in the wall decorations.

The west front of the Minster is imposing with its great window called the “Heart of Yorkshire.,” is impressive inside and out. The minister has the largest intact medieval stained glass.

The central tower rises 235 feet with the main altar below. Behind the altar is the choir screen which includes statues of the fifteen kings of England from William the Conqueror to Henry VI. I remember these odd faces from my high school European history text.

William the Conqueror on the Kings’ Screen

Allerton Park

Paul Klenck March 26, 2019

Robert Allerton, son of a Chicago industrialist, built this estate in 1900 and later donated it to the University of Illinois. This central Illinois treasure has woodlands, formal gardens, ponds, and the mansion is used as a meeting and retreat center. Robert Allerton was an artist and collector of art and sculpture, so I’m having some fun converting these images to a painterly look. The first image is of the old stables which now is the dining room. The next image is the upstairs landing leading to the bedrooms. The U of I football team used to stay here before games.

The gardens are a delight. This is a koi pond off the back porch of the estate looking out onto the woodlands.

The grounds have some large sculptures you can come across while hiking the woodland trails.

Woodland trails and Death of the Last Centaur by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle

The formal gardens have a collection of terrific sculptures as well. These are in the Brick Walled Garden, the oldest garden on the estate.

Looking through the Brick Walled Garden to Adam

Scottish Muses

Paul Klenck March 19, 2019

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh has wonderful displays not only of Scottish history, but world and natural history. The museum is a merger of two museums, including the former Royal Museum which was housed in the marvelous Victorian era Grand Gallery.

Grand Gallery, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

Another grand view is in the Animal World gallery.

Animal World, National Museum of Scotland

My favorite exhibit was the Lewis chess pieces. They were found on a beach on Lewis Island in the Hebrides and carved from walrus ivory in the 1100s by Vikings. Unfortunately, only 11 are in Edinburgh, the other 82 pieces were appropriated by England and are at the British Museum in London.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is in a grand 1901 building in Kelvingrove Park in the Glasgow’s West End. It’s eclectic collection is like a mash up of all the Smithsonian museums or a combination of Chicago’s Field, Science and Industry, and Art Institute.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

Kelvingrove - art gallery, natural history and aviation mash up

We arrived when the museum opened and got in a side door and I got a quick picture of the Diplodocus in the main hall before the school children got in the main doors. “Dippy” is only on temporary display, traveling from London for a visit.

Argyle Street Hall, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Stirling view

Paul Klenck March 12, 2019

Stirling castle sits on a rocky crag above the first location where medieval and earlier armies could cross the Firth River and so was of great strategic significance. William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought and won two battles for Scottish independence over superior English forces. A statue of Robert looks down into the valley.

Much of the current castle is a Renaissance wonder built by the Scottish king James V, whose son James VI would become James I of England, Wales and Scotland, the first to hold that title. The orange colored Great Hall contrasts sharply with the gray rocks of the rest of the site. The castle was closed when we arrived to clean and salt the stone walkways for visitors because of the spring snow storm, something I don't think they did in the 16th century.

The palace outer wall had stone figures carved into niches of King James and mythic figures. These were colorfully painted. The interior of the palace sought to convey James’s power. The ceiling was filled the oak carved medallions showing royalty and courtiers colorfully painted.

Other rooms sought to further convey the royal power. The Queen Mary de Guise bed chamber was surrounded by tapestries of the Scottish symbol of the unicorn. The original of these tapestries are now in The Cloisters in Manhattan.

By the time we were ready to leave, the sun was out and the snow melted.

By the time we were ready to leave, the sun was out and snow melted.

Window seat

Paul Klenck March 5, 2019

I generally take an aisle seat to stretch my legs, but if the flight time looks promising, I might request a window and hope I can get some images. Sometimes I’m lucky.

This flight out of St. George, Utah would be flying over some great landscape in good light. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed, but I managed a shot shortly after takeoff seeing the steps of the Grand Staircase where the Colorado Plateau elevates from the Grand Canyon up to Bryce Canyon in big, well, stair-steps.

The patterns can be great such as this wind farm, perhaps in Nebraska, and this Air Force base and farm near Palmdale, California, which appears like radar screens guiding planes in.

It’s always nice to arrive home. A landing over the Chicago lakefront is almost always terrific. Here’s the Rogers Park neighborhood on the north side with Loyola University on the bottom and Evanston and Northwestern University on the top edge.

Carl Sandburg Home

Paul Klenck February 26, 2019

I worked at a boys camp in North Carolina two summers. We would take an outing down the road to Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. He had lived in Galesburg, Chicago and Elmhurst, Illinois, and then Michigan before buying this farm outside Flat Rock, NC that he called Connemara. This is the house on top of a hill looking down to a pond below. Out buildings and farmland surround the home in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.

I now live in Elmhurst, Illinois where Sandburg had moved in 1919. He’d commute by train to Chicago to his job reviewing (silent!) movies for the Chicago Daily News. His home, about a half mile from where we live is gone. Also gone is the Lindlahr Sanitarium that filled most of the space between. Eugene Debs, former president of the American Railway Union and five time candidate for U.S. president for the Socialist Party, had three extended stays at the Sanitarium and would visit Sandburg. Debs died in 1926 walking back from a visit with the Sandburgs.

Eugene Debs visiting Carl Sandburg and children in Elmhurst. Image Carl Sandburg State Historic Site.

Sandburg wrote most of his six volume biography of Abraham Lincoln while living in Elmhurst, He was awarded the Pulitzer for history for Abraham Lincoln: The War Years in 1940. He twice received the Pulitzer for poetry. His desk at Connemara appears he just walked away from writing. One wall has pictures of the prize winning goats he and his wife Lilian (Paula) raised on the farm.

Next week, I’ll walk over to Elmhurst College to hear Doris Kearns Goodwin, another Pulitzer prize winning author, speak about leadership and Abraham Lincoln. Can you just imagine her and Sandburg sitting at the kitchen table and talking about Abe?

Kitchen, Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site

Sandburg’s poetry inspired me when I prepared the eulogy for my brother Herb. I said that Herb personified the poem Chicago: Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.

Amazingly, Paula Sandburg’s brother was Edward Steichen, the phenomenal photographer who collaborated with Sandburg in curating the famous exhibition and book, The Family of Man. Steichen’s photographs hang on the walls at Connemara.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, Flat Rock, NC

1060s, 1860s, 1960s

Paul Klenck February 19, 2019

Three National Historic Parks in northern Georgia and southern Tennessee offer a journey through a wide range of our history. Exciting news in the U.S. Senate this week offers the possibility that two of these parks will expand in the largest expansion of federally protected land in a decade.

Ocmulgee National Monument was protected by President Franklin Roosevelt and was a major WPA and CCC project during the Depression. The park protects prehistoric American Indian heritage. Though occupied for over 17,000 years, around 1000 BCE the Mississippians began constructing a huge ceremonial center with temple mounds and earth lodges. The largest structure is Temple Mound which offers a view of some surrounding features.

View from Temple Mound, Ocmulgee National Monument, Georgia

In the far right of the image above can be seen the Earth Lodge. The CCC did extensive archaeological work and reconstructing of the interior. Carbon dating of the floor shows occupation from around 1015 CE. The restoration included uncovering a large eagle platform.

The Senate passed the National Resources Management Act this week 92-8. If it also passes the House and is signed into law, Ocmulgee will be designated a National Historic Park and will quadruple in size. Some are working to eventually designate this park outside Macon, Georgia as a future National Park. If passed, the bill will add 2 million acres of protected land, much around Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks in California.

Earth Lodge exterior, Ocmulgee National Monument

Near Murfreesboro, Tennessee is Stones River National Battlefield commemorating a Union victory fought on and around January 1, 1863, the day the Emancipation Proclamation was effective. The victory allowed the army to cut off Southern supply lines and continue to move toward Atlanta. The victory also resulted in the freeing of the enslaved near Murfreesboro.

The location pictured below was named the Slaughter Pen reminding soldiers of the Stockyards in Chicago. Union troops used these rocks as protection, but were then trapped there in a Confederate rush and slaughtered among these rocks.

Slaughter Pen, Stones River National Battlefield, Tennessee

In Atlanta is the remarkable Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park preserving Dr. King’s birth home, Fire Station No. 6 integrated in 1963 and accepting women fire fighters in 1977, and Ebenezer Baptist Church were King was baptized and ordained and where his funeral was held. Dr. King and Coretta Scott King’s tombs rest nearby at the Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King tombs, Atlanta

St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Paul Klenck February 12, 2019

I visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for its well deserved reputation of having a lovely rookery for native birds who fly in to build nests, and are approachable to photograph. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the rest of the zoological park.

When I first got to the park, a keeper was in the pit standing right next to this alligator called Mad Max. Max has an eye infection and the keeper was discussing his condition with the medical staff who were standing on the bridge in the background. Max was sleeping and the keeper tried to get his attention by calling his name and smacking him on the snoot with his hand! This image was later in the day after Max got some medicine.

I’ve seen lots and lots of gators in Florida and walked near them—and kept an eye out for them—while photographing birds. Yet, I was not prepared for the concentration of gators here.

Perhaps you’d like this job of feeding a rat to a gator.

The keeper below, who was the one who smacked Max on the snout earlier, is very comfortable walking around the pit and talking to the gators who respond when he names them. The trainee in the background looks less comfortable!

The zoo has a remarkable collection of crocodilians from all over the world. In addition to the native birds that fly in and out, there are some captives as well. These two from Africa were in nice light when I visited.

If you visit the beautiful city of St. Augustine, I recommend a relaxing visit to the Alligator Farm.

Waste not

Paul Klenck February 5, 2019

On your next trip to Florida, be sure to visit a wastewater reclamation plant. Or visit more than one, I guarantee your senses will enjoy it. You may recall that last week’s Friday Fotos were all taken at the South Central Brevard Wastewater Treatment facility , a/k/a Viera Wetlands. Over the years, many Friday Fotos have been taken there. These facilities take treated wastewater and send them through these developed wetlands for further treatment. Eventually, the water is used for gray-water purposes such as watering lawns or sent to local rivers. The air is filled with the sound of birds—and no odor!

Viera wetland drive, White Pelicans, and American Coots

The five ponds at Viera have berms surrounding them that permit cars to drive through and see the wildlife. Many people also bike and walk through the facility. In addition to the birds, I’ve seen otters, raccoons, wild hogs, deer, snakes, turtles, a bobcat and many gators.

Orlando wetlands is a far larger facility and doesn’t permit cars. It is located in nearby Fort Christmas, and like Viera, the finally treated water is released into the St. John’s River.

As would seem to befit Palm Beach County in south Florida, they have two premier facilities. Wakodahatchee Wetlands—or just “Wako”—has boardwalks and paved trails and shelters to get out of the sun. Many birds nest in mangroves or other trees close to the boardwalk. In the image below, Wood Storks, Great Blue Herons, and Anhingas are nesting.

Just a couple miles away is Green Cay Wetlands. The water reclamation facility has a mile and half of boardwalks over water, through pine, palm and hardwood forests and even has a nature center.

One of the pleasures of walking through these facilities is that photographers and birders are eager to share unusual birds that they’ve spotted. It’s not a great image, but I was able to add a bird to my life list at Green Cay. Someone pointed out to me a Chuck-Will’s-Widow blending in a branch. This nocturnal bird, with a name resembling it’s night-time call, is nearly a foot long. I returned the favor spotting an American Bittern at Wako and got a crowd of photographers around me. Those images will come in the future!