by Therese Oldenburg | Mar 8, 2024 | History
I love to do historical research and in 2023 I became absorbed in learning more about my hometown’s founding settlers. I did the research as a part of a program I was offering at Nature At the Confluence, an environmental center located at the confluence of...
by Therese Oldenburg | Jan 19, 2024 | History, Outdoors and Nature
Nature At The Confluence Legacy Trees are Eastern Cottonwoods Nature At The Confluence is an environmental learning center in South Beloit, IL, right on the border of Beloit, Wisconsin. I was the founding executive director at this beautiful space which was built on a...
by Therese Oldenburg | Jan 19, 2023 | History
By Therese Oldenburg Notes: There are many variations of Joseph Thibault’s name including Tebo, for the sake of consistency, we’ll use Thibault in this story. All references about this time refer to “Winnebago” as the name of the Native...
by Therese Oldenburg | Nov 21, 2021 | History
At the confluence of Turtle Creek and the Rock River, from about 1822-1832, there was a very large Ho-Chunk settlement called Ke-Chunk (Kečąk) or Turtle Village. The land they lived on is now an environmental learning, Nature At The Confluence. When I was executive...
by Therese Oldenburg | Mar 19, 2021 | History
In 1854 a group of 15 Irish families settled on the land at Nature At The Confluence. The recent Irish immigrants had come to build the new railroad, while their young wives strived to build a new home here. They called their small settlement “Illinoy”,...
