Long Overdue Postcard

Dear Alice,

When we went to Illinois to visit Mom at Thanksgiving, Scott and I decided that we would really like to visit Bishop Hill again. It had been many years since we had gone there the day after Thanksgiving with the children...it is always fun to try to catch the Julbuck playing tricks on people. We also needed to stock up on some Kalle's caviar.

Bishop Hill was an early Swedish settlement on the Illinois prairie. I remember studying it in the 70's when working on my BLA, and wrote a paper for my urban planning class at the time. Back then the buildings were in terrible disrepair. By the late 80's the settlement had been restored somewhat as a historic site by the state government, and sadly, the most recent governor pulled any supporting funds from important historic places like Bishop Hill and Black Hawk State Park.

There is a wonderful spinning guild that serves much of the western Illinois community, the Bishop Hill Fiber Guild. Many of those who are members have work in the Prairie Arts Center, a lovely shop that we visited. They have really grown since the last time we were there! On the 28th of November, there was a lovely lady demonstrating weaving--weaving rag rugs with sock loopers. In fact there were four looms set up that day, but only one weaver at the time we visited.





There are wonderful treasures in some of the other historic buildings, things that unfortunately will be hidden away now that they have lost funding, so some of the State-owned buildings will not be open to the public. Do not hesitate to visit Bishop Hill, though! The architecture is fascinating, and there are some great little privately owned shops and restaurants.


I'm sorry it took so long to get this in the mail to you,
Nancy