Updated April 26, 2011nbsp; URL is www.genestrattonporter.net/
Welcome to our
website for
Gene Stratton-Porter and her Limberlost Swamp
in Geneva, Indiana. This is one of Indiana's State
Historic Sites. See links in table below.
2009
was the centennial year of Girl of the Limberlost.
| The 2011
Calendar of Events for the Limberlost Cabin and the
Loblolly Marsh (Loblolly Marsh = Limberlost Swamp for this area) |
Why Gene Stratton-Porter matters so much to us
and a brief review of her historic impact |
| Hours we
are open, and where we are. We are now open YEAR ROUND!!!
New hours start April 1, 2009. You can Contact us here. |
Friends of the Limberlost volunteer organization worldwide |
| Earn the
Girl Scout patch program for Gene Stratton-Porter and the
Limberlost!!
Maps of places of interest for "Gene in Geneva" |
Visit our wonderful giftshop! Buy Go Green With Gene tee-shirts and all her books.. and a hard-to-find GSP book is now available to buy! |
| 2009 was the centennial year of Girl of the Limberlost. See the press release, the school announcement and more information. | NEW:
A list of
all Movies based on Gene Stratton-Porter books!
|
For any newcomers, Randy
Lehman has written a short but encyclopedic review of Gene
Stratton-Porter's importance. We fans know so much that we assume all
the readers know too. That's not accurate! Here you go!
WHO WAS
GENE STRATTON-PORTER
Gene (born Geneva) Grace Stratton is one of Indiana’s most famous female authors. She was a prime example of an independent woman, an accomplished naturalist, and a born story-teller.
Born near Wabash, Indiana on August 17, 1863, she was the youngest of 12 children. Her parents, Mark & Mary Stratton, raised their children on a farm near Lagro, Indiana, located in Wabash County. From a humble Hoosier homestead and with not even a high school diploma, Gene Stratton-Porter would eventually become a famous author, naturalist, talented photographer, and movie producer.
Two of her Indiana homes are state historic sites. The Limberlost State Historic Site in Geneva, Indiana, was Gene’s home from 1895-1913, but altogether she lived 25 years in Geneva. It was in Geneva that she, her husband (Charles Porter) and daughter (Jeannette), lived near the 13,000 acre Limberlost Swamp in a 14-room Queen Ann style log cabin home that she called “Limberlost”.
Mrs. Porter lived until December 7, 1924. A streetcar accident claimed her life in Los Angeles. At the time of her death she was considered to be one of the wealthiest female authors in America and had an estimated 50 million people (nearly half the population of America) reading her books. For a thorough biography of Gene Stratton-Porter, see Gene Stratton-Porter, Novelist and Naturalist by Judith Reick Long – Published by Indiana Historical Society – Indianapolis 1990.
THE LIMBERLOST CABIN
This home is an Indiana State Historic Site, administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and managed by the Indiana State Museum. The Porters built the home in 1895 after Charles Porter, Gene’s husband, could afford to build a home that reflected his financial & business success. The white cedar logs used to construct the home came from Wisconsin. The architectural style is an unusual “Queen Anne Rustic”. The interior is more indicative of the late Victorian period. Much of the interior paneling is quarter sawn red oak. The music room’s lincrusta is beautifully restored.
The Limberlost Cabin has 14 rooms, many of them restored to their original detail by skilled artisans. Mrs. Porter worked with the architect to design the home, and there is an obvious attention to detail. The home features some original pieces including bedroom furniture by Grand Rapids Furniture Company (Michigan). Some items were still in the home when it was donated to the state in 1947 such as Mrs. Porters Moth and Butterfly collection as well as a mounted Golden Eagle. Today, the Limberlost Cabin still has the warm, embracing, charm that it had when the Porters lived in the home a century ago.
Randy Lehman is the Curator, and manages the site with the help of the Friends of the Limberlost, local volunteers, who sponsor events throughout the year and raise money for the site and for wetland restoration projects.
THE LIMBERLOST SWAMP
The location of the Limberlost Cabin was close to the Limberlost Swamp, which covered approximately 13,000 acres in the southern part of Adams County, the northern part of Jay County, and a small portion of Wells County in Indiana and Mercer County in Ohio.
Attracted to the abundant wildlife and unique plant life of the Limberlost Swamp, Gene Stratton-Porter spent a great deal of time photographing the flora and fauna of the area, and the swamp became the setting for many of her famous novels. Her love of the Limberlost Swamp inspired the novels that brought her international fame as an author. The Limberlost Swamp was the subject of some of her most popular novels including her bestsellers, Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost (today considered classics of Indiana literature). During her time at Limberlost, she wrote six novels and five nature books.
The Limberlost Swamp was a perfect place for a naturalist like Gene to photograph birds and plants. She would often bring butterflies and moths indoors to photograph and study, and she sold many of her bird photographs to the popular nature magazines of the time, like Recreation and Outing Magazine. Her skill in understanding bird behavior allowed her to get remarkable photographs of live birds in their natural habitat and help set the standard for future bird photographers.
For Mrs. Porter, the Limberlost was a place to study the natural world, but for others of her time, it was a place to be avoided altogether. When Mrs. Porter arrived in Geneva in 1888, the Limberlost Swamp was in the process of being ditched and drained so that its valuable timber could be cut and settlers could lay claim to more agricultural land. In 1888 an oil & natural gas boom started in this part of the state, and by 1895 it was going at a fever pitch. Many had hopes that large deposits of oil would be found below the surface of the Limberlost.
By 1913, Mrs. Porters popularity as a writer made her seek out a more private location for a new home she built with her own money on Sylvan Lake in Noble County, Indiana,. Also, by 1913, the original 13,000 acre Limberlost swamp was significantly reduced in size due to drainage projects and this adversely impacted Mrs. Porter’s nature studies.
Despite efforts at draining the Limberlost, many acres still frequently flood and this flood-prone acreage is eligible for federal and state programs established to protect and increase the amount of wetland acreage in Indiana. There is a successful program underway by Limberlost Swamp Remembered, a Committee of The Friends of the Limberlost, to buy and restore some of the Limberlost Wetlands. Today close to 1500 acres of the Limberlost Swamp are in the process of being restored and are managed by the Indiana Division of Nature Preserves. People can visit these restored wetland properties and experience the Limberlost just like Gene Stratton-Porter did a hundred years ago, and discover why Mrs. Porter felt the Limberlost was the best place to study birds, wildflowers, and moths.
THE GENE STRATTON-PORTER LEGACY
Her legacy still lives on today. Thousands of fans and curious visitors, who may not be familiar with her work, visit her two former homes in Indiana. They learn that the main purpose of Mrs. Porter’s novels is to focus the reader’s attention on the importance of the natural world. The main characters in her books discover that nature has spiritual and restorative powers. Read one of her books, and it is easy to see why Gene Stratton-Porter’s popularity as a writer made her a leading spokesperson for the early conservation movement in America.
Today the Limberlost State Historic Site is available for anyone interested in learning more about the cultural history of this area, including the life story of Gene Stratton-Porter and her connection to the Limberlost Swamp. Visitors can also enjoy natural history opportunities as they hike the wetland trails and when they visit the new Wetland Education Center located in the carriage house at the Limberlost Site.
Mrs. Porter’s books and movies still have a popular appeal. The following description from the pages of From Ben-Hur to Sister Carrie by Barbara Morrow shows the impact Gene Stratton-Porter can still deliver. “Today a new generation of readers is embracing Stratton-Porter’s ecological message. People concerned about the environment are finding that her warnings against draining wetlands, destroying vegetation, and upsetting the balance of nature have special relevance in our modern age—especially as Americans struggle to clean up polluted rivers, purify dirty air, save animals from extinction, and avoid a much feared energy crisis.”
The life of Gene Stratton-Porter is a model for the power of self-determination and perseverance. Her novels and nature studies and her tireless effort to spread the message about our connection to the natural world still have a positive impact on many people around the world and continue to help us see the need to be better stewards of the environment.
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News of note: The GSP Archive will soon go digital!
The Adams County Public Library and Limberlost State Historic Site
recently won a digitization grant through the Indiana State
Library. The project, "Celebrate Gene Stratton-Porter", will
provide digital images of Gene Stratton-Porter's photographs,
correspondence, and collaborating information to be displayed to the
public for the first time, on the state library website. Funds for the
grant are provided through federal LSTA money (Library Services
Technology Act.)
Stratton-Porter, whose book, A Girl of the Limberlost, is celebrating its centennial this year, is an important personage in the life of not only Adams County but also the state of Indiana. "This is an exciting way to introduce people from across the world to the work of an accomplished Hoosier. For the first time, everyone will be able to see letters from Mrs. Stratton-Porter which describe her life and the publication of her books. This will be a great gift to researchers and the general public alike.
Project manager is Rose Bryan, Branch Manager of APLS-Geneva. Randy Lehman, Curator of the Limberlost Site in Geneva, and Jamie Faller, Program Developer for Limberlost and Gene Stratton-Porter Historic Sites will be serving as expert researchers. Karen Adams has been hired to do scanning and data entry.
The 2007
spring film festival review
Learn
about Laddie and Keeper of the Bees
at this link.
Friends of the
Limberlost organization
This
page is made by Sandra Weinhardt in Bluffton, Indiana. My email
is secop@parlorcity.com
and the Limberlost Cabin in Geneva, Indiana is