Faded Memory, Faded Rose

It could be because I'm walking the trails again (out to Green Valley early this a.m.), but yesterday the faded memory of a park trail somewhere south of Omaha niggled me again. I say again because it has happened before, but was it a real memory or something I had dreamed?

So I got a map of the Omaha area out and there, between Omaha and Bellevue, was a green area labeled Fontanelle Forest. And when I Googled it, there were indeed trails.
That knowledge doesn't solidify my memory of it though. It was at least fifty-five years ago, Doug was two or three years old. I stopped there with him and walked a short time on a trail through the bluffs. Maybe it was one of the times I went to Omaha to visit my sister. Betty and I took Mike and Doug to the zoo and to the Joslyn Art Museum, but my faded memory of being in Fontenelle Forest does not include them.

Perhaps I only dreamed I went there because the Historical Timeline of the area gave me this man's name and information which I definitely remember. In the 1960's Jim Malkowski began leading eduational hikes in the forest which were very popular. He became director of the Fontenelle Forest Nature Center when it opened in 1966. I remember seeing the television spots he made telling what was going on that week. I know I always wanted to go after seeing those, but never did. The memory I have is of the area when the only staff employed was a caretaker.

Reading the Historical Timeline of Fontenelle Forest https://fontenelleforest.org/about/historical-timeline/ is very interesting. It illustrates from the time the area was once covered by a warm, shallow, sea to the ice age, followed by the formation of the Loess Hills, and warm dry prairies, to the forest it is today where wandering tribes of Native Americans, including the Oto, Ponca and Omaha, hunted.
Before European explorers arrived, natives had settled along the ridges, built permanent living structures and were known by artifacts found within nearly seventy earth lodges, to be village farmers.
The Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery expedition passed by the area going up the Missouri River in 1804. The picture above depicts the trading post founded in present day Fontenelle Forest in 1822. In 1823 nearby Belleview, one of the oldest settlements in Nebraska, was founded. In 1855, Logan Fontenelle, the son of fur trader Lucien Fontenelle and Bright Sun of the Omaha tribe was killed by a band of Sioux Indians. He is said to be buried somewhere on Fontenelle's property and it is for him the Forest is named.

In 1910 a group met to discuss ideas for a state forest preserve. In 1913 the governor of Nebraska signed a bill incorporating the Child's Point Forest Association the forerunner to the Fontenelle Forest Association now known as the Fontenelle Nature Association. The group's first tract of land, Child's Point, covered more than 300 acres and was deeded to the Association in 1920. By 1990 the Fontenelle had grown to own and maintain nearly 1800 acres of land.

With all its boardwalks, the 25,000 square foot Nature Center, the Raptor Recovery Center and Woodland Refuge and all the other improvements, I would never recognize the quiet path I think I remember once following.

When I got back to the car to leave Green Valley this morning, I spotted this Wild Rose. Immediately some of the lyrics of the song Faded Painted Rose ran through my mind. Not surprising as that Al Martino song was also part of my memories of that time.

She was a wild and lovely rose...