Taste Countdown - 7 days!

Only one week left until the 2010 Taste of Montgomery County! We're putting on the finishing touches to make sure everything goes smoothly, and it will almost certianly be the best Taste yet. In addition to the great music line-up of Not Too Bad Bluegrass Band, Green Room Rockers, and Midnight Special, the food also promises to deliver something for everyone.

Some returning favorites include The Juniper Spoon, Joey's Main Street Cafe, The Iron Gate, China Inn, The Big Dipper, A Country A-Fair, Bon Apetit, Two Guys Cooking, Miller's Quality Meats and Catering, Arthur's Cafe, Norvell's BBQ & Catering, Moody Meats, Applebee's and Buffalo Wild Wings. Menu items include midwestern favorites such as barbecue sandwiches and ice cream, and also branch into more exotic territory with Mediterranean orzo salad, low country boil, and sushi.

Newcomers to this year's Taste include Hawg Wild BBQ, Athens Nutrition and Smoothies, Ross Mobile Foods and Catering, Chapel Books, Patch of Blue Denim Cafe, and Las Cazuelas Mexican Restaurant. Sun King Brewing Company will debut with three different kinds of their freshly-made beer. Iced coffee, smoothies, roasted pork, and authentic enchiladas round out the menu options.

Is your mouth watering yet? Advance tickets are still available at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum, Milligan's Flowers and Gifts, Kwik Kopy, the Montgomery County Visitors Bureau, and Homestead Gifts for $1 cheaper than gate prices - that's $4 for adults and $2 for students!

Have a great time supporting the Museum at the Taste on August 28!

Fly-in Visitors

The 3.5 acres of blooming trees and flowers have been host to a multitude of fly-in visitors. Birds and beetles (japanese) visited the grounds early this spring, with the cicadas, hummingbirds and butterflies soon following. The easter swallowtail, black swallowtail and the viceroy butterflies have been feasting on the lantana, salvia and butterfly bushes.

The swallowtails are the most popular with the visitors, many amazed at the bright blue on the black swallowtail. The yellow swallowtail flit from bloom to bloom, rarely holding still for a photo opportunity.

While picking green beans, i noticed two green/black striped caterpillars. Hoping to have monarch caterpillars, I researched and foundthat they are black swallowtail caterpillars. They are green with black stripes, approximately two inches long. We will keep an eye on them in the next few days and see what transpires.

Farewell, Kasey!

Today is the last day for summer intern Kasey Greer, who will be a sophomore at Indiana University Bloomington. A history major, she applied for the Rhetorical Analyst internship analyzing Lew Wallace's writings to get a sense of the man behind the actions. Since May, she has worked over 30 hours each week, which has given her opportunity to sample the many facets of working at a small museums. Kasey has been a creative and outstanding addition to the Museum. Here are some of her reflections about her experience:

"When I applied for this internship in early spring, I never would have imagined the variety of knowledge and skills that go into running a museum. Now, thanks to the staff and volunteers at the Museum, I have experienced a lot of them firsthand.

"My main project for the summer was to answer a few of the long-pondered questions about Lew Wallace to better our interpretation for guests. The two questions I decided to focus on are Lew's view of 'the woman question,' which visitors ask frequently because of his independent wife susan, and his opinions on slavery since he was a Union general.

"I first researched both, then drafted the more academic versions with all the appropriate citations. Next, I pared them down to add to the volunteers' manual. though some parts of the project, like reading all of Lew's 1003-page autobiography, were tedious at times, for the msot part I had a lot of fun discovering all I could about Lew's thought processes and opinions. I am particularly interested in questions of gender and the way it influenced culture and society at different historical time periods, so getting one man's take on the subject of women's roles particularly fascinated me.

"While my main project took up a large portion of my internship time, working 32-36 hours each week gave me plenty of time to learn more about other aspects of the Museum as well. I have given tours almost daily since the beginning of my internship, and I helped make signs and lay out the Museum newsletter. In June I had the opportunity to help move the paintings out of the Study in preparation for the roof restoration. That peek into collections work really fascinated me, and I plan to look more into that field because of my experiences. In July I assisted with the Lew Wallace Youth Academy. The kids were a lot of fun to work with, and getting to see them retire the Indiana flag using the ceremony I wrote really capped off the experience.

"Now I'm looking to the future. This fall I will be a sophomore at Indiana University Bloomington. I am majoring in history and minoring in sociology and anthropology. I took this internship hoping to gain some experience to decide if I want to stay in academia or expand the public's knowledge of history through museum work. While I have not totally made up my mind, this experience has certainly opened my eyes to the museum world."

The Earl of Squirrels

When something of interest landed on Lew Wallace’s radar, he just couldn’t leave well enough alone. Late in life he purchased acreage outside of town and created his country home Water Babble where he began improving the property; partly with the idea of creating a fish hatchery. This wasn’t his only foray into animal husbandry. Our visitors often comment on the large size and reddish color of the squirrels here. There is a reason the squirrels on the Study grounds look a little different than their downtown neighbors. As reported in The Crawfordsville Journal on July 15, 1901:

“After four years of trial General Wallace has located a splendid colony of fox squirrels in the big forest trees about his residence. The pretty little animals and their young can be seen at all hours frisking about the lawn and they are jealously guarded from dogs and the air gun boy.”

Perhaps General Wallace felt that the large size and reddish color of the squirrels better complimented the artistic effect of the Study. Whatever the reason, after 110 years, the descendants of the General’s efforts at selective breeding are still frisking about on the lawn.

Plants Telling Time

We look to the groundhog to tell us if spring will come soon, but can plants tell us if there will be an early fall? Grounds Manager Deb King has made some keen observations about the plant life on the grounds, and all signs seem to point to cold weather coming a few weeks early this year. The ligularia, one of the most asked-about plants on the grounds, has sprouted its black-eyed susan-type bloom – and in some cases gone to seed already – about three weeks ahead of their usual time in mid to late August. The pawpaw trees are also loaded down with their “Indiana banana” fruit that will likely drop by the end of August. Deb commented that, “They did that last year, dropped their fruit before the Taste, and we had an early winter.” The final clue is the walnut trees, which have started bombing the lawn in front of the Carriage House with walnuts weeks ahead of the normal schedule. Perhaps an early start to fall will bring relief from the heat and humidity we’ve been dealing with. Or, perhaps all the rain has prompted an unusual reaction in some stressed-out plants. We’ll find out in a few months!

Lew & The Elston Homestead

Lew Wallace was a man who loved to satisfy his curiosity by research. He also had great curiousity as a boy, and satisfied his need for knowledge in brave and exciting ways. In his autobiography, Lew comments on the fine and wondrous home of Major Elston. “His [Elston’s] dwelling-house, in the midst of a primeval woods, was the best in the county, and it was furnished to correspond, and the fame thereof went abroad.” People far and wide commented on the Elston’s home and furnishings and at one point Lew heard that the Elston’s had a sofa in the hall. Given his rather modest background, Lew had never heard of a sofa and had no idea what it was—but he intended to find out. Even though he was a youngster, Lew realized that he was not a part of the Elston’s social circle and would not be invited into their home. As many a young boy in such a dilemma might do, Lew simply invited himself into the Elston home unannounced—being careful to assure that no one else was home either.

He faced a similar situation when he heard that the Elston’s had recently purchased a piano. He had no idea what a piano was but he was able to find out from friends that it was a musical machine. Again, he crept into the Elston home uninvited and saw the mysterious machine without being discovered. This led the curious boy to his next question—just how did the machine make its music?? More research was necessary. He waited many days until the Elston’s hosted a party one evening in the double parlors. After dark, Lew crept “Indian-like” through the Elston grove and up to the windows glittering with candlelight. Lew watched and waited in the dark. In a little while a young lady went to the machine, opened it, and miracle of miracles, she began playing “One little, two little, three little Indians. . .” His research had paid off.

Throughout his life, Lew remained a person with an extraordinary curiousity about the world around him. He was also a man of action who didn’t always wait for an invitation before proceeding. In reading his autobiography, it’s easy to see how the curious boy became the military leader we remember and the creator of characters from worlds beyond Crawfordsville.

"More than $3 worth"

Last week a group of visitors enjoyed their tour and commented at the end, "We got more than our $3 worth. Thank you so much! You know so much about the building and the history." The additional money dropped in the donation box was nice, too, but satisfied visitors was the real reward.

Just a few more weeks until the Study Restoration Project begins, and then there will REALLY be something to see!