I.A.S. Newsletter, April 1968 ~ 7 - 
BIRD HAVEN 
Bird Haven, the Robert Ridgway Memorial Bird Sanetuary and Arboretum, just north 
of Olney, Richland County, iilvanoiss hadsits beginning in October 1906, only 
three years after the Federal Government established its first sanctuary. Robert 
Ridgway, then Curator of Birds at the United States National Museum, bought eight 
acres of young timber as a country home, a bird Sanctuary and an arboretum. 
Interested in birds from his early childhood, Ridgway had begun at the age of 13, 
to keep records of the birds of his home, Mt. Carmel, Illinois, In his search 
for the names of the birds he observed, chance brought him a great teacher, 
Spencer F, Baird of the Smithsonian Institution, who not only named the bird draw- 
ings Ridgway sent him, but gave help in keeping his bird records and in improving 
his bird pictures, With four years of bird observations completed, Robert Ridgway, 
through Baird's recommendation, was appointed Zoologist for the survey of the 40th 
parallel in the far west. When only a boy of 17, Ridgway left for this outstanding 
position (April, 1867) with the resolve to return some day to live in So. Illinois, 
After 40 years of waiting, Bird Haven* with its wooded hills, treeless lowlands, 
and springfed stream was that dream come true, Many scientific articles and books 
had come from Robert Ridgway's pen in those years, his thirty-first being his obser- 
vations on the birds of those years, his thirty-first being his observations on 
the birds of the Lower Wabash Valley (Ridgway, 1874). Since 1894 his work at the 
museum had been the writing of "Birds of North and Middle America", a great under- 
taking, but one which advanced his return to southern Illinois, He could live in 
the country and continue his writing. With preparatory planning and research much 
advanced, the first three volums published, the fourth (Ridgway, 1907)in progress, 
he bought Bird Haven, During three summers Ridgway and his wife lived there, count- 
ed the birds as they arrived and listed the breeding birds and the unusual migrants, 
In 1908, the Ridgway's country home was increased to 18 acres, 
During the summer of 1910 they lived in the big house on the adjoining (Poland) 
farm to the north east, Mr, Ridgway found time to search the farm for breeding 
birds not found on Bird Haven, The extreme heat of thatsummer revealed the Bird 
Haven was not desirable as a summer home, In October, a modern brick house on 
eight acres of sround was purchased in South Olney. The name, Larchmound, given 
by the original owner, was retained and here the Ridgway's lived the summers of 
1911 and 1912, and began "year round" living in June, 1913 (Ridgway, 1915) 
Mr. Ridgway's plans for an endowment for Bird Haven were incomplete at the time of 
his sudden death on March 25, 1929. Mrs. Frances K, Hutchinson, a woman of means, 
a friend of conservation and of Dr. Ridgway and his work at Bird Haven, not only 
increased the endowment beyond his figure but added the fam (about 100 acres) 
where the Ridgways had lived in 1910. This memorial to Robert Ridgway she deeded 
to the University of Chicago in 1932, 
Wilson Bulletin 1955 
* Also see AUDUBON BULLETIN for June 1967 
NOTE: Under plans by Olney city officials, Ridgway's Bird Haven would be 
buried by a city reservoir, 

