Tour #1 By Dan Holloway, Herrin, Illinois USA 

I am a lucky man.  I wake up to this scene every morning. It looks a little barren in the winter but is still pleasing.

After reading Ian Walker's 'Old Lindley Moor Revisited' article, I thought about my age and the fact that I will probably never get to England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Germany and all points in between. I figured that if we got enough readers of Micscape to give a short tour of their living space then I would get to see a personal view of the world!

I hope that other readers take up the challenge and give us a peek at where they live and the world about them.

Well, here goes.  I will start at my home in the extreme southern tip of Illinois.  Abraham Lincoln lived here in Illinois and is where the Lincoln/Douglas debates took place.



My wife Mary has a green thumb and she makes sure we have beautiful plants around the house. The lily above was in the shade of an old mulberry tree in our front yard along the walkway.  

Under the mulberry tree is the destination of the ripe fruit. Here our cat Zoey is trying to ascertain just what I am up to. To keep the house from getting tracked up with purple mulberry stain we must clean the walkway daily. It is worth the effort because of all the birds that are attracted to the tree. The picture on the right shows some of the fruit.

More yard foliage.

In our back yard just above the fish pond is a Yucca plant in bloom and a tuft of Pampas grass.

The fish pond

We have a very famous federal prison just about 12 miles (19 km) from our house—the Marion Federal Prison. If you pay close attention, many US movies, especially 'Cop and Robber' type shows, Marion prison is mentioned. We have had many famous inmates held here. A few are listed below.

John Gotti Mafia crime boss
Leonard Peltier Native American Activist
Jonathan Pollard Israeli spy
Pete Rose baseball great (tax fraud)

Next I want to take you to see Crab Orchard Federal Game Preserve. It is also quite close to our home. Stopping alongside the road I have run across a few wild flowers.  

Red Clover and Feverfew

Queen Anne’s Lace

Monarch butterfly on milkweed bloom.

Next we come across Crab Orchard Lake.

The fishing here is mainly for Bass, Crappie and Bluegill.

Canadian geese migrate to our area and the game preserve builds platforms and towers for observation. Hunting is not allowed on the game preserve, however, there is some goose hunting done in the area. The goose observation platform you see below looks over a large field that is planted with food for the geese.

Bald eagles can frequently be seen on the reserve.

Well, that just about does it for my little part of the world.  I live in Williamson County, Illinois and it has an interesting past.  Google 'S. Glen Young' and 'Bloody Williamson County' for more facts.  We were called 'bloody Williamson' because of a mass killing in the 1920 era. We had and have a lot of coal mining in the area and a strike prompted mine management to hire outside workers. These workers were ultimately killed by union miners.  

Everything from gang wars to bootlegging happened here.  This link takes you to a site that sheds a little light on what it was like in Southern Illinois.

See here: http:// www.illinoishistory.com/egypt.htm. This area is also called Little Egypt, http://en.wikipedia.org/.  

We even have a city named Cairo on the southern tip of Illinois! http://www.heritech.com/soil/birger/birger.htm

Ian Walker gave me the idea for the 'Micscape World' with his piece 'Old Lindley Moor Revisited' . It is quite evident that Ian is much t he better photographer and artist than I. Still, you now have an idea where I live and work. I hope others will follow.

All comments to the author Dan Holloway are welcomed.
Dan Holloway, Herrin, Illinois, USA

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