Piatt County Museum

Wilma Harshbarger wrote that when she was a child in the 1920’s she lived in Atwood. Her family would go to Tuscola and Decatur on the Ocean to OceanHighway. It went past Atwood on the north side of town on the street past the high school. When Route 36 was paved in the late 20’s it was routed one mile south of the Ocean to Ocean. She remembered watching the men work on paving the concrete south of Atwood.
The News Gazette in Champaign wrote that the OO-PP road carried the travelers from Indianapolis to Denver. Travelers had no choice but to stop in towns they had never heard of. Twenty years before Route 36 came through and 60 years before the interstates, the Ocean to Ocean road was a boon to the Model T auto travelers.

While we are talking about trees, in 2003 this list was given to me by Wilma Harshbarger. Her husband Ralph, along with previous family members, were very consciousness about conservation and planted different varieties of trees to see what would grow in their soil.
I don’t know if all of these are still standing or who owns the property now. Wouldn’t it be a nice if the new owners were aware of this and let you walk the property so you could see and identify these different species?
The Ralph Harshbarger Centennial farm is located at 604 N. 1425 East Rd., Bement.
Valentine park outside of Monticello has a similar site but, each species is identified with tags. Something to do when the weather gets a LOT cooler.