Articles about Environment
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Honeybees sweetened 19th century life in Central Illinois
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 20, 2012.
In November 1887, a poor local honey harvest led The Pantagraph to predict scarce inventories and high prices. “Biscuit will have to be...
Lightning a menace, past and present
By Bill Kemp. Published on May 17, 2015.
On May 20, 1897, a heavy afternoon shower accompanied by a “brilliant electrical display” passed through the Lexington area, catching 1...
Solar superstorm awes locals in 1859
By Bill Kemp. Published on July 31, 2016.
It was known as “the week the sun touched the earth.” In late August and early September 1859, two geomagnetic solar superstorms wallop...
Water-pumping windmills forerunner to wind turbines
By Bill Kemp. Published on February 26, 2017.
Today’s larger wind farms can include hundreds of 280-feet tall turbines and cover thousands of acres, generating enough megawatts to p...
Weston Cemetery Prairie window to lost world
By Bill Kemp. Published on November 5, 2017.
In 1971, C.E. “Bud” Wink and Dr. Lee Garber of Fairbury undertook an investigation of five-acre Weston Cemetery, located in nearby Yate...
Evergreen Lake groundbreaking 50 years ago
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 22, 2018.
Fifty years ago this week—April 27, 1968—Bloomington officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s second lake. On that day, ...
Springtime once meant return of prairie flowers
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 31, 2019.
Novelist, poet, essayist and farmer Wendell Berry has said that we live in a time of “punishment and ruins.” This is certainly true whe...
Women’s Improvement League kept Normal clean and healthy
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 21, 2019.
Editor's note: This is Bill Kemp's 650th original "Page from Our Past" column. Bill began writ...
Moraine View park opened in 1959
By Bill Kemp. Published on January 5, 2020.
There are few lovelier corners of McLean County than Moraine View State Recreation Area. Situated several miles north of LeRoy, the 1,6...
For pioneers, river crossings sometimes matter of life and death
By Bill Kemp. Published on March 21, 2021.
Of all the hardships faced by pioneers, the danger of crossing swollen rivers and creeks is one of the more difficult for present-day f...
Bloomington’s oldest park turns 165 this week
By Bill Kemp. Published on April 25, 2021.
“How pleasant it is, immediately after the noontide hour of a hot summer’s day,” mused The Pantagraph in 1857, “to stroll away from the...
Electric cars sparked local interest long before Rivian
By Bill Kemp. Published on February 13, 2022.
The startling success of electric automaker Rivian has shined an international spotlight on Bloomington-Normal. The company’s ever-spra...