Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

Street View from Google map is southwest of Eagle Marsh Nature Preserve and Little River Wetlands Project

Fox Island County Park, 7324 Yohne Rd., Fort Wayne, IN 46809, Phone: 260 449-3180, Fax: 260 449-3181. Fox Island Park on Facebook. Fox Island Alliance has a FOX ISLAND ALLIANCE HISTORY Timeline. A nature preserve started around 1975 in the Allen County Parks Department. The 600-acre park contains the largest contiguous forest in the county and a 40-foot-high glacial sand dune which could give visitors some idea what the area looked like when explorers and pioneer settlers came to this area. Sol Fest is held every May since the 25th anniversary in 2000 in celebration of nature education at Fox Island with a mix of music and get outdoor oriented activities. See Rediscover outdoors at Sol Fest Annual event at Fox Island benefits county park efforts by Keiara Carr published May 2, 2014 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.

1. December 3, 2015 post by Hofer and Davis, Inc. Land Surveyors on Facebook:

   THROWBACK THURSDAY! The Plat of the Week shared for our friend Ron Zartman, Park and Education Manager at Fox Island County Park reminded me of a true bedtime story my father shared with me in close proximity to Fox Island. Do you remember???? Fort Wayne made national news in 1965 when dairy farmer V.O. Harrold corraled 30 Brown Swiss Cattle within the right of way of the newly constucted Interstate 69 to dramatize the injustice he felt in the States offer of the condemned farmland taken. Mr. Harrold was arrested after this stunt for malicious trespass. Carl A. Hofer testified in the trial in regard to damages caused to the farm. Mr. Harrold was awarded $18,500 dollars by a jury of 6 men and 6 women in Superior Court. I rarely drive by the farm without imagining 30 cows fenced in on I-69!!!

2. February 12, 2016 post by Allen County Parks on Facebook:

   23 bird species counted today at Fox Island's Great Backyard Bird Count! Just watch birds for 15 minutes anywhere, log onto birdcount.org and submit your own bird list! The count is from now through Monday, February 15th!

   The Great Backyard Birdcount Fri 12 Feb 2016has Fox Island County Park and Nature Preserve current Sightings

3. Posted by Fox Island County Park on Thursday, March 9, 2017

   March 9, 2017 video post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

   Tiger Salamander eggs in a vernal pool at Fox Island on Lake Road.

4. November 5, 2020 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

   This curious coyote was filmed 11-05-20 in an area with a lot of deer and small animal traffic. Time and temp can be seen at the bottom screen.

5. Fox Island at 8:00 PM tonight

   Posted by Allen County Parks on Tuesday, March 15, 2022

   Tuesday, March 15, 2022 post by Allen County Parks on Facebook:

   Fox Island at 8:00 PM tonight

6. June 14, 2022 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

   Fox Island Closed, June 14, 2022

7. Fox Island to be closed for weeks after derecho brings down hundreds of trees by: Vincent Martorano, Posted: Jun 20, 2022, Updated: Jun 20, 2022. on CBS WANE-TV NewsChannel 15.

8. August 22, 2022 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

   Drone photos thanks to Homeland Security. Sadly, this shows some of the worst of the damage caused by the Derecho on June 13. It shows the majority of trees laying down north of the lake parking lot. This extends all the way to the Marsh overlook in this area of the park. The front of the park was bent and broken as well.

   It is impossible to explain how much damage is on the trail. That doesn't begin to explain the damage that has been multiplied off of the trail, so a few pictures may be worth a thousand words.

   We continue to receive donations which we will use to order trees to be planted in the spring. The order will go out in October. We will find ourselves planting trees for a few spring seasons I believe.

9. October 28, 2022 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

   Fox Island view from the upper dune trail. Looking southeast. The loggers have not been in there at all.

10. November 28, 2022 post by The Journal Gazette on Facebook:

    ICYMI: Fox Island Park continues to recover from the June 13 derecho that toppled more than 1,200 trees and caused incalculable damage.

    Natalie Haley, park manager, verbalizes the loss: "It's hard to explain the feelings that you go through when you’re in an area that you know what it should look like because here, it still looks kind of similar," she said of the view behind the Nature Center. "But when you go out on the dune … and you know what that looks like, and you turn around and you can’t see anything familiar in any direction, it just throws you."

    Read more about the cleanup and restoration efforts here:

    Response to Fox Island's derecho damage continues five months later

11. American plum. Native tree, small in stature. Alternate leaf arrangement. Flowers smell fragrant. Not to be confused...

    Posted by Fox Island County Park on Wednesday, April 26, 2023

    Wednesday, April 26, 2023 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

    American plum. Native tree, small in stature. Alternate leaf arrangement. Flowers smell fragrant. Not to be confused with non-native Callery pear trees that do not belong here and invade our natural areas, and smell of fish. Protrusions on the American plum are not real thorns, but are sharp and may feel like thorns.

12. October 17, 2023 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

    Planting red and white oak acorns, with the aid of several volunteers, on these old logging paths at Fox Island. This is an effort to restore them back into forest!

13. January 19, 2024 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

    *FUN FACT FRIDAY*

    Coyotes live to be between 10-14 years old.

    They stand 2-3 feet tall and have a tail that is 16-20 inches long.

    Their diet consists of small mammals such as rabbits and rodents, as well as fish, frogs, insects, snakes, deer, and even eat fruit and grass. They are not picky eaters. This helps them to thrive in many environments.

    Instead of forming packs, coyotes live in family groups. Sometimes they will hunt alone and interestingly, they have been known to hunt cooperatively with other species such as badgers!

    Their hair is a grizzled gray color and their bushy tail has a black tip. A great way to be sure you are seeing a coyote is to look at the position of its tail. Typically, dogs run with their tails up, while coyotes run with their tails down. More often, coyotes are heard rather than seen as they tend to vocalize at dusk, dawn, or during the night.

    *Pictures taken at Fox Island County Park

14. Please give yourself time to scroll through the pictures provided in this article. Prepare yourself for when you come into the park later this year (we hope!).

    Posted by Fox Island County Park on Wednesday, March 27, 2024

    Wednesday, March 27, 2024 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

    Please give yourself time to scroll through the pictures provided in this article. Prepare yourself for when you come into the park later this year (we hope!).

    Immeasurable devastation at a southwest Allen County park planted an idea at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

    Soon after the June 2022 derecho, colleagues Scott Bergeson and Jordan Marshall began discussing the possibility of creating a class focused on the destruction and recovery at Fox Island County Park.

    The idea sprouted this semester in the form of a graduate-level course on disturbance ecology that also includes undergraduate students. Along with lectures and field trips to nature preserves throughout northeast Indiana, the class features a term project asking students to create a management plan for Fox Island, said Bergeson, an assistant professor of biology.

    Natalie Haley, park manager, told the students last month that she’s envious of everything they get to learn. The class will study about 40 acres within the 270 acres dedicated as a state nature preserve. Students will learn techniques for conducting research on small mammals, plants, amphibians and arthropods, such as insects and spiders.

    Nature's destruction becomes class topic for Purdue University Fort Wayne students Ashley Sloboda | The Journal Gazette Mar 23, 2024 in The Journal Gazette newspaper.

15. *WALKABOUT WEDNESDAY* I sure love spring! The wildflowers feel so hopeful. I hope you all can get outside in the lovely weather, even if it's not yet here at the park. Have hope! It will be soon!

    Posted by Fox Island County Park on Wednesday, April 10, 2024

    Wednesday, April 10, 2024 post by Fox Island County Park on Facebook:

    *WALKABOUT WEDNESDAY*

    I sure love spring! The wildflowers feel so hopeful. I hope you all can get outside in the lovely weather, even if it's not yet here at the park. Have hope! It will be soon! 

    #1 non-native invasive lesser celandine
    #2 emerging may apples
    #3 violets
    #4 spring beauty
    #5 bloodroot
    #6 dutchman breeches

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