Showy Lady's Slippers
photo by Frances Kuehn Ray Hoobler and his wife, Frances Kuehn, were paddling a canoe on Cornwall Flooding in Pigeon River Country when they spotted America’s largest and most beautiful northern orchid, Showy Lady’s Slipper. They got out of their canoe to take pictures. “We got wet, but it was worth it,” Frances says. The presence of such wildflowers prompted the late Eugene Oschner, an early member of the PRCA, years ago to propose setting aside certain spots in the PRC as protected natural areas. The PRC Advisory Council recommended the same to the DNR. But the state has never acted on the proposal. Nevertheless, Showy Lady’s Slippers remained one of Ray’s favorite features of Pigeon River Country. Ray died in New York City on April 29. We are posting on our website a bit longer version of an article about Ray Hoobler that the Gaylord Herald Times published May 8. More information about Gene Ochsner’s proposal appears on page 293 of our book, Pigeon River Country by Dale Franz. We also draw your attention to the following: Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Pigeon River Country Discovery Center is closed until at least Sept. 1, 2020. Details are posted at the Discovery Center website, https://pigeonriverdiscoverycenter.org/ Click on “COVID-19 Update.” PRC headquarters is currently closed, as are the campgrounds, along with many other DNR facilities throughout Michigan. The DNR website is www.michigan.gov/dnr Click on “DNR COVID-19 Response.” We now have available the new 2019 edition topo map of the High Country Pathway and the Pigeon River Country State Forest! They are available at: www.pigeonriver.com,Village Market, DNR Operations Center on M32, White Birch Outfitters, Gaylord Tourism Bureau, Atlanta Management HQ on M33, Otsego Lake State Park and Clear Lake State Park |
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