The Audubon Societies 



b3 



country school, which was a very primi- 

 tive affair, indeed. Having received such 

 little schooling as he could get from this 

 source, at the age of nineteen Mr. Woollen 

 entered the Northwestern Christian Uni- 

 versity, now Butler College. During the 

 years he spent here, he earned his way by 

 teaching country school and doing occa- 

 sional farming. He graduated from the 

 law department a few years later and 

 began the practice of law in Indianapolis. 

 For nearly fifty years he has been con- 



Indianapolis itself. On Easter Sunday, in 

 1897, as he wended his way down Fall 

 Creek, he came upon a singularly wild 

 and beautiful spot. As he himself has 

 described it; 



"Before me was a veritable wild wood. 

 It was primitive. No stock had ever pas- 

 tured in it. The buckeye and tuUp trees 

 were unfolding their beautiful foliage. 

 The May flowers were just beginning to 

 bloom. The anemones, pepper and salt 

 hepaticas, trilliums and many other wild 



THE LOG CABIN IN THE GARDEN 



tinuousl}' at his desk. He is the author 

 of several law books of importance, and 

 is an efficient and respected member of 

 the Indianapolis bar. 



Throughout all his busy life, Mr. 

 Woollen has retained his love for the out- 

 of-doors, and to this is undoubtedly due 

 his physical vigor, and his wholesome, 

 hopeful views of life. For many years it 

 was his custom to spend a part of Sunday 

 in taking long walks through the woods. 

 Often he strolled along Fall Creek, a most 

 beautiful little stream, which flows from 

 the northeast down through the city of 



flowering plants garlanded the hill. This 

 dense forest that I was entering was a bird 

 paradise and resonant with bird song." 



Here he met an old resident, who, as 

 they walked, pointed out many things of 

 interest, among them the fallen trunk of 

 a great tulip tree, which had never been 

 removed after it was cut, because of its 

 great size. The neighbors had called this 

 great tree the "Buzzard's Roost," and so 

 the place got its name. Mr. Woollen then 

 and there determined he would purchase 

 the place, and save it in its wildness as a 

 place for nature study. He purchased it, 



