While the Champaign County Forest Preserve finishes up 2013 programming, the staff is also looking forward to changes coming to both the Mabery Gardens and the Museum of the Grand Prairie.
An invite-only list of people gathered at Mabery Gelvin Botanical Garden on Oct. 10 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the garden. Founder of the Champaign County Forest Preserve H.I. Gelvin dedicated a small garden outside the museum to his late wife, Mabery, in 1974. The garden has grown to 8-acres today.
Guests at the event took a tour, walked down by the garden pond and waterfall for refreshments and listened to a presentation by the CCFPD Executive Director, the Foundation President and Mabery’s grandson.
A monetary gift was accepted at the event for improvements to the garden. Although plans have not been finalized, CCFPD may use the money for renovations to the waterfall and pond.
CCFPD will host a year-long celebration of the garden in 2014. The forest preserve is currently accepting monetary donations for the continued development of the garden.
The Museum of the Grand Prairie will bring the spirit of gardening inside during 2014 with a home gardening exhibit which will talk about Native American gardening, how the first settlers in this area planted apple trees, victory gardens, canning, modern gardening trends and slow food preparation.
With a $57,000 grant from the State of Illinois, the Museum of the Grand Prairie is in the beginning stages of developing exhibits which will better reflect the entire cultural and natural history of Champaign County.
Curator Valerie Hall is beginning work on a glacier exhibit which will talk about the effects of the glaciers on the Central Illinois terrain. The collection will then follow a series of events which turned the flat, muddy terrain full of prairie grasses into the agricultural and business driven society it is today.
“There’s a natural history side to the story and there’s a people’s side to the story,” Museum and Education Department Director Barbara Oehlschlaeger-Garvey said.
Garvey expects the entire collection will take a little over a year to construct. The glacier exhibit will be completed in a few months.
Local volunteers are nearly finished painting the entirety of the museum exterior. The group began painting the exterior with the museum addition. As soon as they finish, the Museum of the Grand Prairie will be able to display new signage, which is expected to come in December.
