Articles

By Bill Kemp. Published on April 1, 2009.

One of the more striking modern day conveniences we take for granted is the ease of long distance travel. Before commercial airlines, c...

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...

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...

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...

By Bill Kemp. Published on June 9, 2019.

“The most American thing in America.” That’s what Theodore Roosevelt said of the Chautauqua movement, the popular, week-long outdoor ga...

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...

By Bill Kemp. Published on June 22, 2020.

The COVID-19 crisis has taken many things from us—above all, the lives of 125,000 Americans. We have also lost, for a tim...

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...

By Bill Kemp. Published on April 27, 2023.

Fifty years ago this week—April 27, 1968—Bloomington officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for the city’s second lake. On that day, ...

By Bill Kemp. Published on June 29, 2023.

Novelist, poet, essayist and farmer Wendell Berry has said that we live in a time of “punishment and ruins.” This is certainly true whe...

Articles about Nature