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Environment

Articles

12 items

Bloomington’s oldest park turns 165 this week
“How pleasant it is, immediately after the noontide hour of a hot summer’s day,” mused The Pant...

Article

Electric cars sparked local interest long before Rivian
The startling success of electric automaker Rivian has shined an international spotlight on Blo...

Article

Evergreen Lake groundbreaking 50 years ago
Fifty years ago this week—April 27, 1968—Bloomington officials held a groundbreaking ceremony f...

Article

a dirt trail meets water, surrounded by trees and bushes

For pioneers, river crossings sometimes matter of life and death
Of all the hardships faced by pioneers, the danger of crossing swollen rivers and creeks is one...

Article

lithograph of bee hive

Honeybees sweetened 19th century life in Central Illinois
In November 1887, a poor local honey harvest led The Pantagraph to predict scarce inventories a...

Article

Lightning a menace, past and present
On May 20, 1897, a heavy afternoon shower accompanied by a “brilliant electrical display” passe...

Article

Moraine View park opened in 1959
There are few lovelier corners of McLean County than Moraine View State Recreation Area. Situat...

Article

Solar superstorm awes locals in 1859
It was known as “the week the sun touched the earth.” In late August and early September 1859, ...

Article

Springtime once meant return of prairie flowers
Novelist, poet, essayist and farmer Wendell Berry has said that we live in a time of “punishmen...

Article

Water-pumping windmills forerunner to wind turbines
Today’s larger wind farms can include hundreds of 280-feet tall turbines and cover thousands of...

Article

Weston Cemetery Prairie window to lost world
In 1971, C.E. “Bud” Wink and Dr. Lee Garber of Fairbury undertook an investigation of five-acre...

Article

Women’s Improvement League kept Normal clean and healthy
Editor's note: This is Bill Kemp's 650th original "Page from Our Past" colu...

Article

Biographies

2 items

Black and white photograph of an older man, Jesse Fell, wearing a simple suit. He has a nice gaze, looking off into the distance, and a slight upward turn to his mouth

Fell, Jesse Weldon
Jesse Weldon Fell was born on November 10, 1808 to Jesse Fell and Rebecca Roman Fell at his fat...

Biography

William Van Schoick

Van Schoick, William
Thomas William Van Schoick was born on August 2, 1829 in Monmouth County, New Jersey to David a...

Biography

Farming in the Great Corn Belt

3 items

Draining the Prairie
With most savannah land claimed by 1836, some farmers chose to take a chance by trying to produ...

Digital Exhibit

Erosion
Intensified farming and the use of tractors caused wind and water erosion, but area farmers did...

Digital Exhibit

Our Rich Land
The Great Corn Belt is only great because of its incredible fertility. Its history started in t...

Digital Exhibit

Finding Aids

10 items

Aldrich, Frank W.
While Frank Aldrich was a banker by trade, he was remembered by many, locally and international...

Finding Aid

Angler’s Lake
The citizen effort to preserve Angler’s Lake, located in southeast Bloomington, began in 1979. ...

Finding Aid

Children and Elders Forest
Children and Elders Forest was formed in 2005 in Bloomington-Normal for charitable and educatio...

Finding Aid

East Bay Camp
The collection includes correspondence involving camp founders, newspaper clippings, camp newsl...

Finding Aid

Ecology Action Center
Established in the spring of 1995 as the education branch of Operation Recycle, the Ecology Act...

Finding Aid

Grand Prairie Bird Alliance Collection
The first Audubon Society in McLean County was called the Cardinal Audubon Club, organized in 1...

Finding Aid

Merwin
A Bloomington native, Loring C. Merwin served as publisher of the Pantagraph for over three dec...

Finding Aid

Normal Community Garden Club
In the summer of 1939 nine women were invited to meet at the home of Mrs. Wm. (Hattie) Dickey t...

Finding Aid

ParkLands Foundation
ParkLands Foundation was chartered in 1967 as a private, non-profit corporation under Illinois ...

Finding Aid

Water
The file contains various reports, newspaper clippings, maps, and ephemera regarding the water ...

Finding Aid

Making a Home

1 item

Jesse Fell
With plans to settle somewhere in Illinois or Iowa, in 1828 Jesse Fell left Pennsylvania headed...

Digital Exhibit

Research

1 item

Post Amerikan
Held by the MCMH and digitized by Eastern Illinois University. The Post Amerikan began publicat...

Article

Speakers Bureau

1 item

The Night the Stars Fell

Speakers Bureau

Videos

7 items

All About Wind Turbines with Meghan Reha

Video

Creating a Sensory Garden with U of I Extension Brittnay Haag

Video

Ecology Action Center Tree Corps

Video

Lunch & Learn: Organizing for policy change for a more just and regenerative food system

Video

Lunch & Learn: Why Care about Air - BNCARE

Video

Miller Park: An Evening of Stories with Bill Kemp

Video

The Night the Stars Fell

Video