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50th Anniversary Candle-Lit Ski
Interpretive Center Back Room • Free Saturday, February 20; 5:30 - 8:00 p.m. - Open House *Please RSVP starting Monday, January 25 in person or by calling/e-mailing the Nature Center. This will be our first kick-off event for our 50th anniversary celebration. The trails will be lit by luminaries along the trail. We are starting early so there may be some light left for those early birds who would like it. If you come later in the evening, you may want to bring a headlamp or flashlight for a little extra light depending on the moon and cloud cover. This is a free event open to everyone. Only skiing will be allowed during this event, no walking or snowshoeing on the candle-lit trails. This is an open house event so you may show up anytime and participate in the candle-lit ski. Cookies and refreshments will be available during this event in the ski rental room. This event does not include ski rental, you can rent from us or you are welcome to bring your own. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Our smallest boot size is 10 and a minimum height of about 3 ft is needed to fit into our skis. *The Interpretive Center will not be open during this time, please enter the building through the back side doors. **If there is not enough snow to hold skiing, we will still illuminate the path to enjoy an evening stroll ~MORE EVENTS COMING SOON~ We can’t wait to celebrate 50 years of environmental education and conservation in 2021. We hope you’ll mark your calendars and plan on joining us for the 50th Anniversary special events (As Covid 19 restrictions allow). Stay tuned for some special events throughout the year. |
Human History - 50 Profiles for 50 years:
Every week we will highlight favorite memories and experiences from people over the last 50 years that have been a part of the narrative that makes what the Nature Center is today.
Peter, Belita's grandson, is all smiles holding a frog he caught himself
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Belita Schindler
It is now nearly 50 years that my family has been enjoying the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. It’s a wonderful place. All of our grandchildren have loved it. When she was about three, one granddaughter would walk down the paths picking up little pea sized stones, because they were beautiful. Another older granddaughter and I were walking one fall day when a pair of little fawns, that still had their spots, crossed in front of us. Then they just stood there watching us and eating grass. “Grandma, they’re not running away.” They all scaled the big rock, and if they felt really brave would leap off the far side onto the grass. Another time our grandson, Peter, was able to catch a really big frog with his bare hands and insisted that we go back to the interpretive building to show Julie. Julie found his photo that she took of him that day after I shared this story with her for this history project. We had one daughter’s wedding reception in the new building. As long as we promised that there would be no alcohol or loud music and no craziness, we could have it there. I guess they knew we were not too wild… crazy maybe, but not wild. The reception was beautiful. But by far, my favorite story came from my husband Dick. He came home from work one day laughing out loud and saying, “We owe the Nature Center $3,000.” “OK, but why do we owe the Nature Center $3,000.” This is how he answered. If you knew Dick, you would know that he dearly loved cross country skiing. He loved to go really fast or just go slowly and look. He would go out several times a week when the weather and snow permitted. And it was even better if it was a moonlit night and he had no time limit. One day he was reading the poster that listed prices for adult and children’s ski rentals. I think it might have been $6.00 for kids. He really wanted families to be able to bring all their kids out for skiing, so that they could learn to love it as much as he did. But he realized that the rental fee times the number of kids in the family might make it impossible. So he talked with Larry Dolphin, and said that if he would only charge the kids $1.00; keep track of how many kids took advantage of that cost; and let him know in the spring how many kids’ rentals there were... he would give Larry a check for the difference. And that’s why we owed the Nature Center $3,000. He was so thrilled to think of how many kids might have been able to ski with the lower price… how many families would have had outings together… had a good time… and gotten good exercise at the same time. So that’s what Dick and I did each winter... Paid the difference. Dick is gone now, but I’m carrying on the tradition. He would be so thrilled to know that his idea is still at work. I will continue to underwrite the kid’s ski program and hope that lots and lots of kids come out to ski and have a really good time. Good idea, Dick. Love, Belita |
Newspaper Clipping of Cindy, kneeling, teaching young visitors of the Nature Center, summer of 1976
Cynthia (Cindy) Lysne Tays
First Intern at the Nature Center
Last year on Mother’s Day I received a unique and wonderful gift from my son, Zach. He had uncovered a notebook full of records I’d created in the summer of 1976 while I was an intern at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center in Austin, MN. It was my good fortune to be the very first Nature Center intern working under Nature Center Director Richard Birger.
Mr. Birger assigned me a very surprising number of tasks and projects for a naturalist student with little experience and also let me run with my own ideas. After just a few days there he told me my first group to lead was the local ladies’ garden club. It was fun to take them through the many habitats available in our southern Minnesota location. Soon after that I taught a several week children’s class called Nature Explorers, led other groups through the trails and interpretive center, painted animal footprints on the walls, created tape recordings for use on the trails and modified interpretive center displays. I also got to transport a new snake from the Minneapolis area for our indoor display.
Quickly the excitement ramped up for me, partially due to my passion then for teaching about edible wild plants. This topic had become popular at that time due to Euell Gibbons’ writings and TV appearances on this subject in the early 1970’s. This edible wild plant theme carried through many experiences as an intern that summer. I even wrote a book on the edible wild plants growing in the nature center, illustrated by a work study student available at the center, and we were able to raise center funds by selling the book. This led to appearing on a local television show, speaking to community groups and receiving newspaper coverage for the center on that subject. Soon groups from other areas were coming to the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center because of our book and instructions.
It was also important for me to realize that not all Nature Center responsibilities are connected to outdoor education and recreation. I have records of attendance at an Austin Parks and Recreation meeting that summer, which is an essential part of maintaining an adequate annual budget. I observed trail restoration by a group of Vietnamese refugees and learned how they harvested watercress at local waterways. And I participated in community service by measuring the barometric pressure, humidity and temperatures that were submitted to the local TV station as part of the daily Austin news weather report.
Freeman Tilden, in his book Interpreting Our Heritage, suggests that “the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.” Every outdoor experience contains the potential for life enrichment. But experiences which are provoked by an interpretive program’s introduction of new ways of perceiving and thinking will retain the stimulation longer and fuse it into more aspects of an individual’s life. That capsulizes the opportunities and goals of outdoor education I had the pleasure of experiencing at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center in the summer of 1976.
Cynthia (Cindy) Lysne Tays
Austin High School Class of 1973
First Intern at the Nature Center
Last year on Mother’s Day I received a unique and wonderful gift from my son, Zach. He had uncovered a notebook full of records I’d created in the summer of 1976 while I was an intern at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center in Austin, MN. It was my good fortune to be the very first Nature Center intern working under Nature Center Director Richard Birger.
Mr. Birger assigned me a very surprising number of tasks and projects for a naturalist student with little experience and also let me run with my own ideas. After just a few days there he told me my first group to lead was the local ladies’ garden club. It was fun to take them through the many habitats available in our southern Minnesota location. Soon after that I taught a several week children’s class called Nature Explorers, led other groups through the trails and interpretive center, painted animal footprints on the walls, created tape recordings for use on the trails and modified interpretive center displays. I also got to transport a new snake from the Minneapolis area for our indoor display.
Quickly the excitement ramped up for me, partially due to my passion then for teaching about edible wild plants. This topic had become popular at that time due to Euell Gibbons’ writings and TV appearances on this subject in the early 1970’s. This edible wild plant theme carried through many experiences as an intern that summer. I even wrote a book on the edible wild plants growing in the nature center, illustrated by a work study student available at the center, and we were able to raise center funds by selling the book. This led to appearing on a local television show, speaking to community groups and receiving newspaper coverage for the center on that subject. Soon groups from other areas were coming to the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center because of our book and instructions.
It was also important for me to realize that not all Nature Center responsibilities are connected to outdoor education and recreation. I have records of attendance at an Austin Parks and Recreation meeting that summer, which is an essential part of maintaining an adequate annual budget. I observed trail restoration by a group of Vietnamese refugees and learned how they harvested watercress at local waterways. And I participated in community service by measuring the barometric pressure, humidity and temperatures that were submitted to the local TV station as part of the daily Austin news weather report.
Freeman Tilden, in his book Interpreting Our Heritage, suggests that “the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation.” Every outdoor experience contains the potential for life enrichment. But experiences which are provoked by an interpretive program’s introduction of new ways of perceiving and thinking will retain the stimulation longer and fuse it into more aspects of an individual’s life. That capsulizes the opportunities and goals of outdoor education I had the pleasure of experiencing at the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center in the summer of 1976.
Cynthia (Cindy) Lysne Tays
Austin High School Class of 1973
~ COMING SOON~
Monthly we will take a deep dive into different pieces of nature center history
Monthly we will take a deep dive into different pieces of nature center history