The notorious red stalks of the rhubarb plant returned to the grounds of Governor Small Memorial Park on Sunday in various forms for the 34th annual Rhubarb Festival.
In 1855, a young physician named Abram Lennington Small, his wife Calista, and their infant daughter, May, moved into a small stone house near the new and growing town of
The Kankakee County Museum s Gallery of Trees is back in all of its ornamental glory now through Dec. 30 at 801 S. Eighth Ave., Kankakee. This year, the museum is
In the summer of 1954, some local homeowners began noticing unwelcome changes in their American elm trees. A plant pathologist from the Illinois Natural History Survey was called in, and
On the warm Thursday afternoon of Sept. 10, 1959, the earth shuddered as a giant toppled to the ground on Kankakeeâs southwest side.
The giant â an 80-foot-tall tree believed to be the largest American elm in Illinois â was located at Eighth Avenue and Water Street, in Gov. Small Memorial Park, just southeast of the Dr. A.L. Small Historic Home. It had been growing there for several decades by the time the pioneer physician began building his home in 1855.
âThe tree is believed to be about 135 years old,â noted an article in the Kankakee Daily Journal on Sept. 11, 1959. âIt reached nearly 80 feet into the sky. It measured 22 feet, 9 inches in circumference at a point 3 feet off the ground where it was cut. Its circumference at ground level was nearly 36 feet. Diameter of the tree was 6 feet.â