Shaw Nature Reserve

I am smitten with Shaw Nature Reserve in Eureka, Missouri.  It takes a little while to get there.  Highway 100 from my house there in forty minutes.

Three Weeks Ago The Nature Reserve Looked Like This:

We loaded into a huge wagon and rode around, learning lots while enjoying the view.

 

A few times we stopped to walk around a site.  We had excellent teachers.

We heard about planned burns, to take care of overgrowth, keep the area healthy, and return the area to a natural state.  Part of the new focus is allowing indigenous plants to thrive.  There are records sharing about the land when settlers arrived.

 “The Bascom House.”

The original farm belonged to Cuthbert S. Jeffries.  The brick house was built by his son-in-law, Confederate Colonel Thomas William Bouldin Crews in 1879.  It was a modern home for the times with bathrooms on each floor.

 He rode his horse to Pacific, Missouri to catch the train into St. Louis, to practice law.

The Missouri Botanical Garden purchased 1300 acres in 1925.  The Crews Farm comprised 320 of the original 1300 acres.

The home is called “The Bascom House” in honor of the the Missouri Botanical Garden Trustee who restored the home.  It is now open to the public.  There is a conference room, offices and a museum.

 

 We stood in a shelter and listened to stories about the land, prairie, wet lands, old growth, from where we were standing all the way to the river.  Amazing things I hope to see with my own eyes someday.

This beautiful tree seems like a “who” to me.

Not so much a camera expert, many things were not captured.  Flocks of bluebirds.  Bluebirds are the state bird, until this day I’d only seen one.  They hang out here.

I saw a persimmon tree, flush with leaves and loaded with fruit.

  Turkey Vulture flew over.  Large, simply floating around in the sky.

Sure look forward to another visit.

 What will greet me?