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POLO
Tri-County Press May 3, 2018 Volume 160, Number 1 - $1.00
Track Team Wins
Vote for Statue
Fundraising Lunch
Forreston-Polo wins the Art Carlson Track Classic out of 21 teams competing. B1
Vote for the Black Hawk Statue as one of the top scenic sites. A8
A luncheon to raise funds to repair the Black Hawk Statue is planned for May 20. A6
Ready for Gardening The Polo High School FFA and Polo Woman’s Clubs combined their annual plant sales on Saturday at the Polo Community High School. Above, left, The crowd poured into the Polo Women’s Club’s plant sale at 8 a.m. sharp. The annual plant sale often sees an immediate burst of customers picking the offerings clean, but the chilly, windy Saturday saw a more steady trickle of people. Above, right, AJ Hinrichs helps his mother, Lisa, carry around her plants in the Polo Community High School greenhouse. Photos by Zach Arbogast
Ogle County is home to largest tree in Illinois By Andy Colbert acolbert@oglecounty news.com When the Byron Forest Preserve acquired a 160 acre plot of land, little did they know of a hidden treasure soon to be discovered. From what was part of what was a 1,420 acre cattle and ranching operation sold by parcels, the forest preserve managed to snag a portion called Bald Hill. Located in a hard-to-find locale between Leaf River and Mt. Morris, Bald Hill appealed to the forest preserve because of the topographical features, native prairie plants, two endangered raptor species, and a rare woolly milkweed. At 925 feet above sea level, it is also the second-highest point in Ogle county with a dramatic sloping of land and some of the finest views found anywhere around. It has gravel and sand deposits from the last ice age. Even with its $652,000 price tag, of which $434,000 was paid for with a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation, it was a prized addition to other properties managed by the forest preserve. What really set this piece of land apart from all others, though, was the accidental discovery of what turned out to be the largest tree in Illinois. With the rolling topography, the tree isn’t noticeable until a person crosses over to a ravine and looks down upon the behemoth of an eastern Cottonwood. “When we first saw it, there was all kinds of brush around it,” forest preserve Executive Director Todd Tucker said. “We cleared the brush and said ‘Oh my gosh, this is a big tree.’ Then I started measuring it with my arms outstretched and it took six lengths to get all the way around it. It had to be close to 30 feet in diameter.” Make that exactly 28.5 feet. It is also 122 feet tall, but sitting at the base of the ravine at 750 feet of elevation doesn’t even reach the highest point of Bald Hill. That’s why it can’t be fully seen
without getting up close. It is also a major factor in the long life the tree has sustained, estimated at 200 years. “The hills protect it from lightning and at the low elevation, it gets plenty of water,” Tucker said. Since news of the cottonwood dethroning a bald cypress in southern Illinois as the Big Tree Champion, Tucker has been busy fielding media interviews. “The Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times have contacted us, along with the Rockford TV stations,” he said, as the BFP staff prepared for an open house on April 28, which drew 800 people from all over northern Illinois. “NPR did a piece on it and it went to the national feed. I think this will do a lot for tourism,” Tucker said. In an area already rich in protected lands, it will also give locals and visitors alike one more piece of nature to enjoy. “Bald Hill will be open to the public year round,” said BFP Education Superintendent Mark Herman. “We will put trails in. From the parking lot to the tree it is almost a half mile. There are also other sites on the property to hike to.” According the plat maps, Bald Hill has had many owners since 1838. Ford Ferguson, a commodities broker from Chicago with a passion for cattle ranching, was the most recent owner. Last year, a decision was made by his descendants to sell Bald Hill and all the other parcels surrounding it, most commonly referred to as the Leaf River Ranch. At first, a private individual, Peter McDaid, outbid the BFP for Bald Hill. Told by Tucker that the BFP was interested in it, McDaid became willing to sell it to the Natural Land Institute, who then sold it to the forest preserve. It was all part of a pre-arranged plan and the marriage of privatepublic partnership working together for the public interest. Bob Piros, of Chana, a longtime advocate for prairie lands and retired Stillman Valley educator, was one of many
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people checking out Bald Hill as it was being prepped for the open house. “The Byron Forest Preserve has a multitude of properties that they’ve put a great amount of work in bringing prairies back,” he said. “Places like this, which looks like southwest Wisconsin when you get on top of Bald Hill and Nachusa Grasslands bring people in. That’s what a big tree and buffalo will do.” Piros has one regret and that is that Doug and Dot Wade, of Oregon, are no longer alive to see the fruits of their labor and the excitement created by the Bald Hill acquisition. “So much of the Byron Forest Preserve and Nachusa came from them,” Piros said. “They started prairie preservation in Ogle County. Doug created a lot of enthusiasts.” To be considered the Big Tree Champion, measurements must be sent to the Illinois State Forester. It then scores a tree based upon circumference, total Russell Brunner, left, Byron Forest Preserve Superintendent of Land Management, and height, and part of the tree’s Todd Tucker, executive director, stand next to the largest tree in Illinois at the Bald Hill Prairie Preserve which opened April 28. The eastern cottonwood, estimated to be 200 years crown width. old, is 122 feet tall and 28.5 feet in circumference. Photo by Vinde Wells
Preserve is centered between four towns The Bald Hill Preserve, 5202 Silver Creek Road, is almost perfectly centered between Mt. Morris, Leaf River, Byron, and Oregon. Newly acquired by the Byron Forest Preserve District, the 160-acre preserve officially opened to the public on April 28. Situated on rolling limestone hills, the scenic property changed hands frequently over the years because it was not tillable and was useful mainly for grazing livestock. Early Ogle County settler, Columbus S. Marshall purchased it from the U.S. government in 1838. Well-known veterinarian William Swingley, who lived in Oregon, bought the property in 1854.
Church News, A5 Classifieds, B7-B10 Entertainment, A6 Library News, A3
By the time the first Ogle County plat book was published in 1872 it was owned by George Betz and already known as Bald Hill. The 1912 plat book calls it Bald Hill Stock Farm and lists the owner as Lenwood W. Wells. It became part of the Leaf River Ranch in the 1960s when Ford Ferguson bought it and a large tract of adjoining farmland. Byron Forest Preserve Superintendent of Education Mark Herman said the foundation of a house, possibly built by Betz, still exists toward the center of the preserve. The house was built of bricks made at the Trot Town brick kiln, a couple of miles west.
Marriage Licenses, A4 Police Activity, A2 Public Voice, B4 Property Transfers, B6
Sheriff’s Arrests, B5 Social News, A4 Sports, B1-B3 State’s Attorney, B6
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Deaths, B5 Ryan W. Benson