As we headed for home we stopped by the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. I don't recall if I'd known much about Sandburg before we started planning the trip, but since it was a National Park site I naturally wanted to visit.
"Nothing happens unless first a dream", Carl Sandburg, 1922
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the park, 1968-2018.
Carl Sandburg provided a popular voice for the American people of the twentieth century and still speaks to us through his words, activism, music and the beauty and serenity of Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.
There is a small parking lot just off the road, located quite a distance from the main house. I think it is likely that the parking lot fills up early on busy days, so I would suggest arriving early.
There were some beautiful flowers next to the parking lot.
This trail led away from the parking lot towards a small building with restrooms.
I'm always a fan of ways to engage kids with nature and their national parks.
I really like these water bottle refilling stations. We try to always carry water with us and I don't want to waste money on buying bottled water. These are so much easier to use than a standard water fountain when you want to refill a cup or bottle.
There are a large number of buildings on the farm as you can see on this map.
After leaving the restroom building you walk by this beautiful lake. The conditions were great to take a picture of the trees reflected on the water as we went by.
An amphitheater was being built when we visited, but it didn't look like too much work had been done yet.
A long path leads up towards the main house.
When you get partway up you finally catch a view of the house. It looks beautiful through the trees, even when a tractor doing mowing comes by just on the other side of the fence.
There were more beautiful flowers to behold as we walked.
The main house looks rather beautiful from the outside, and that is about all we saw. There is a gift shop/visitor center downstairs that we visited, but the rest of the house was undergoing restoration work and all of the furniture had been removed if I recall correctly. In addition the only way to visit the inside of the house is via guided tours and we didn't think the kids were old enough to properly enjoy a tour. According to the park's website it looks like all of the furniture and books were moved back inside in October of this year.
In 2015 the Sandburg furniture and book collection inside the home was packed and moved to storage to prepare the interior for several preservation treatments. Windows in deteriorated condition were repaired, the conservatory or greenhouse attached to the east side of the house was rebuilt, exterior siding was repaired and the house was painted, interior walls were painted, the wood floors cleaned and new carpet runners installed, and a dehumidification and air ventilation system was installed. There will not be a cool air conditioned system installed, but a system that will dehumidify the air and push it through the house. This will better protect the furnishings from mold and mildew and provide a cooling effect for summer visitors to the home.
Walking in the lower level you are greeted by this sign.
There were a decent number of items in the gift shop.
I always gravitate towards the passport display. I've had a number of passport books over the years and always enjoy getting a stamp. I've bought each of the kids their own book and I enjoy helping each of them get their stamp whenever we visit a new site.
We watched a short film, an animated version of one of Sandburg's poems called Arithmetic, a rather interesting poem, read by Sandburg himself. I did manage to find a copy online.
The girls enjoyed watching the short video.
As we walked around outside we saw plenty of more flowers.
We also saw quite a few different buildings, some of which were still being used for their original purposes, and others like this chicken coop that had been repurposed into something else.
There was a working garden that I believe was maintained by volunteers.
Apparently the Sandburgs were a bit famous for their goats and the herd has been maintained by the National Park Service. Mrs. Sandburg owned and operated a premier goat dairy from 1935 to 1965. Here at Connemara the dairy became a Grade A operation, with milk being distributed to local dairies and sold in stores around the community. Mrs. Sandburg's goat breeding program produced champion goats and led to the improvement of goats as milk producing animals.
--from Carl sandburg Home NHS website
The kids really enjoyed the goats.
We even got to see a new kid that was only a few days old.
Outside older kids were playing in the yard.
We got to walk through a gate into the field where the older goats were grazing.
It was fun to be able to just walk into the field towards the goats.
They were quite friendly and got very close to where we were. I think they're quite accustomed to visitors.
Of course I found more flowers.
Back by the barnyard we found some chickens.
One of them even stood still long enough for me to get a good picture.
This was where the goat milk used to be processed.
There are quite a number of trails on the property, but sadly as we had quite a bit of driving left we didn't get the chance to do any more walking than was required to get to the house and the goats and then to go back to our car.
All too soon we had to leave as we still had a long drive ahead, though we didn't make it home for one more day. There are more pictures in this album.
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