Moths of the Limberlöst
by Gene Stratton-Porter (excerpt)
CHAPTER I
(1) To me the Limberlost is a word with which to conjure; a spot wherein to revel. The swamp lies in north-eastern Indiana,
nearly one hundred miles south of the Michigan line and ten west of the Ohio. In its day it covered a large area. When I
arrived; there were miles of unbroken forest, lakes provided with boats for navigation, streams of running water, the roads
around the edges corduroy, made by felling and sinking large trees in the muck. Then the Winter Swamp had all the lacy
exquisite beauty of such locations when snow and frost draped, while from May until October it was practically tropical
jungle. From it I have sent to scientists flowers and vines not then classified and illustrated in our botanies.
Which detail shows a connection between the impacts of logging and the author's reluctant acceptance of those impacts?
(2) It was a piece of forethought to work unceasingly at that time, for soon commerce attacked the swamp and began its usual process of
devastation. Canadian lumbermen came seeking tall straight timber for ship masts and tough heavy trees for beams. Grand Rapids followed and
stripped the forest of hard wood for fine furniture, and through my experience with the lumber men "Freckles" story was written. Afterward hoop
and stave men and local mills took the best of the soft wood. Then a ditch, in reality a canal, was dredged across the north end through my best
territory, and that carried the water to the Wabash River until oil men could enter the swamp. From that time the wealth they drew to the surface
constantly materialized in macadamized roads, cosy homes, and big farms of unsurpassed richness, suitable for growing onions, celery, sugar
beets, com and potatoes, as repeatedly has been explained in everything I have written of the place. Now, the Limberlost exists only in ragged
spots and patches, but so rich was it in the beginning that there is yet a wealth of work for a lifetime remaining to me in these, and river thickets.
I ask no better hunting grounds for birds, moths, and flowers. The fine roads are a convenience, and settled farms a protection, to be taken into
consideration, when bewailing its dismantling....