Personalities:
We hope you enjoy meeting some of your neighbors!
A Visit with Diane Igleheart:
Sitting down with a glass of tea and talking about McCutchanville with Diane Igleheart is like opening an enchanting book on McCutchanville's recent history. Diane told such entertaining stories about her memories of moving into the house on Whetstone Road built by her parents, Roy and Martha Foster, when she was a young girl of 13. They bought the hill property from Ivy Ragsdale (of Kreiger Ragsdale) and it had only two small cabins on it. Her family set up home in the cabins, roughing it, until their new home was built. Because of the abundance of wild blackberries on the property, they named their spot Blackberry Hill. At 13, Diane was granted a driver's permit allowing her to drive from her country home to her classes at Bosse High School but it was understood that the license was only for transportation to school and back, nothing more.
Finally in 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, they moved into their newly finished home. She remembers the neighborhood as sparsely built along Whetstone and Petersburg Road at the time. When she rode her horse along Whetstone Road, there were no houses on the south side of the road. The Carson's had already built their home at 8601 Petersburg Road in 1931 and also there was Grandma (Whitehead) McCutchan's white farmhouse at 8401 Petersburg Road but that was about it. Diane also remembers the lakes and dams in the McCutchanville area built by Dr. Earl Conover and Philip Moore. The community was very interested in watching the mule teams and sleds successfully used to dig and compact the dams at Lake Talahi making them durable even until today. Talahi, a Cherokee Indian word, was a name suggested by Matilda Conover, Earl's daughter and a Camp Fire Girl. It means Lake in the Tall Oaks.
Another of Diane's fond memories was the chicken dinners served at Grandma McCutchan's home. People from "the city" would come for a fried chicken dinner and sit out on the lawn enjoying one another's company and of course the home cooked meals for a small price.
Diane showed me some of her treasured possessions during our visit, a beautiful log cabin quilt made by her great, great grandmother, Mary Brown, and a corner cupboard built by her great, great grandfather, James Brown, early residents of McCutchanville.
Diane and her husband Jim, now deceased, built a house just down the hill from her girlhood home and they call it Blackberry Hollow. Many Christmas get-togethers have been hosted by the couple through the years. Diane and Jim enjoyed the parties and greeting their neighbors but also it provided an opportunity to bring the kids together who were off to college and setting up homes of their own. Diane enjoys Blackberry Hollow and her beautiful home still today. She served in many philanthropic organizations in the community and in the country including Chair of Indiana's Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, President of Willard Library and Founding Board Member of the Evansville Day School.
Sitting down with a glass of tea and talking about McCutchanville with Diane Igleheart is like opening an enchanting book on McCutchanville's recent history. Diane told such entertaining stories about her memories of moving into the house on Whetstone Road built by her parents, Roy and Martha Foster, when she was a young girl of 13. They bought the hill property from Ivy Ragsdale (of Kreiger Ragsdale) and it had only two small cabins on it. Her family set up home in the cabins, roughing it, until their new home was built. Because of the abundance of wild blackberries on the property, they named their spot Blackberry Hill. At 13, Diane was granted a driver's permit allowing her to drive from her country home to her classes at Bosse High School but it was understood that the license was only for transportation to school and back, nothing more.
Finally in 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, they moved into their newly finished home. She remembers the neighborhood as sparsely built along Whetstone and Petersburg Road at the time. When she rode her horse along Whetstone Road, there were no houses on the south side of the road. The Carson's had already built their home at 8601 Petersburg Road in 1931 and also there was Grandma (Whitehead) McCutchan's white farmhouse at 8401 Petersburg Road but that was about it. Diane also remembers the lakes and dams in the McCutchanville area built by Dr. Earl Conover and Philip Moore. The community was very interested in watching the mule teams and sleds successfully used to dig and compact the dams at Lake Talahi making them durable even until today. Talahi, a Cherokee Indian word, was a name suggested by Matilda Conover, Earl's daughter and a Camp Fire Girl. It means Lake in the Tall Oaks.
Another of Diane's fond memories was the chicken dinners served at Grandma McCutchan's home. People from "the city" would come for a fried chicken dinner and sit out on the lawn enjoying one another's company and of course the home cooked meals for a small price.
Diane showed me some of her treasured possessions during our visit, a beautiful log cabin quilt made by her great, great grandmother, Mary Brown, and a corner cupboard built by her great, great grandfather, James Brown, early residents of McCutchanville.
Diane and her husband Jim, now deceased, built a house just down the hill from her girlhood home and they call it Blackberry Hollow. Many Christmas get-togethers have been hosted by the couple through the years. Diane and Jim enjoyed the parties and greeting their neighbors but also it provided an opportunity to bring the kids together who were off to college and setting up homes of their own. Diane enjoys Blackberry Hollow and her beautiful home still today. She served in many philanthropic organizations in the community and in the country including Chair of Indiana's Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, President of Willard Library and Founding Board Member of the Evansville Day School.
Al Perry, Nature Photographer
A polar bear stalking you during the "hungry season" in the arctic. A grizzly sow standing on her hind legs, growling at you with two cubs at her feet. A rattlesnake strike. A bull moose in a stare down contest on the tundra. All of these encounters have been a part of the adventures of Al Perry, prize winning nature photographer, and a neighbor in McCutchanville. But the biggest challenges he has faced?
"I would say the greatest hardship has been enduring the cold winters of Alaska and Iceland attempting to photograph the northern lights best seen during the coldest and darkest days of the winter along the Arctic Circle. Temperatures usually range 10-20 below zero Fahrenheit, but in the spring of 2014, the thermometer plummeted to minus 30 F. It's very difficult to keep equipment functioning and to stay warm photographing northern lights between 9 P.M. to 5 A.M. About one night in 15 was productive."
Where does the extreme sport of nature photography begin? For Al it was during his Army Service with Uncle Sam in 1968 when he purchased his first camera. After discharge, he enrolled in college and started taking fraternity/sorority pictures to help make ends meet. About 20 years ago he began to feel the call of the wild. He has since traveled the globe, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Joyce, to catch that one shot, that eye popping, heart lifting moment, when he the photographer, and you the viewer, see the world in a new and fresh way.
"My biggest photography challenge was participating in the 2006, 2007, and 2010 Images for Conservation Pro Tour. $200,000 was offered in prize money. You had to stay within the parameters of one ranch for 30 days. That wasn’t hard to do since the ranches were typically over 100,000 acres! But the conditions were hot, dry and dusty along with an endless supply of prickly vegetation and of course the encounters with numerous venomous critters." In the end, he was awarded several thousand dollars for his images.
Some of the many honors that Al has won for all of his efforts are the 2011 Parade Magazine First Place for his "Best in the West" photo of Mt. McKinley. Also, Al has won the Best of Show Awards in Photography Writing and Video at the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers annual contests in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2014. Al’s photo of a red tail hawk attacking bats as they flew from their cave was voted one of the top 100 nature photographs by the North American Nature Photographers Association. Al has also won several annual vacation photo contests of the Evansville Courier Press.
What's on his bucket list?
" I plan to spend several weeks photographing on the only continent I haven't visited - Africa!”
For the last 15 years Al has maintained an office and photographic gallery in McCutchanville at the Fire Station Building. You can view some of his pictures on Facebook at Al Perry Nature Photography. Or visit his website alperry@alperry.com with over 150,000 of his photographic images.