Newton County news

I was driving through Newton County today and noticed a new sign along US 41 about a mile north of the Nature Conservancy headquarters.

There is a gravel pullout by the sign, and a much bigger gravel pullout on the northbound lanes of US 41. But if you are in a hurry, you can read the sign here.

Bogus Island would be an interesting place to see if it had not been destroyed.

I do not really believe that hundreds of fowl could be taken with one shot from a hunter's gun. That sounds like a tall tale that hunters tell. And the sign was not erected in 2010. It was put up this morning. The folks at the Nature Conservancy told me that when I visited.

They are getting ready to move into their new building. I had seen pictures of it from their Facebook page, so I wanted to stop by and see how progress was going. (They were working on parking areas while I was there.)

They were not yet in the new building, but were still in the old house that they had transformed into an office. They said that they would be moving in mid June, which is really close, and that they did not know what they would use the old building for. The new quarters should be more visitor friendly--I felt a bit like an intruder in their current "office."

I wanted to walk one of their three trails, but the Unit K Trail, which starts next to the office building, was very wet and had not been mowed, so it would have been hard to complete. They recommended I try the Conrad Station trail or the Unit B Trail, which is on CR 600N. The Unit B trail was out of my way, but one of these days I will make it in my way.

NICHES has a lot less acreage, but as much hiking trail and they are closer.