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Apple River, IL) The Eagle Nature Foundation (ENF) has just announced that it has had to change the dates for its 4-day 2013 Wildlife/Historical Bus Tour to Nebraska from March 18-21 to March 19-22. So now the bus leaves on Tuesday, instead of Monday, and returns on Friday, instead of Thursday. This 4–day tour will leave promptly at 8:00 am on the morning of March 19 from the parking lot of Stoney Creek Inn on Hwy. 20 on the west side of Galena and return about 6:00 pm on the 22nd.

An added highlight for this year’s tour will be a behind the scenes tour of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. The Archway displays were originally developed by Disney artists and workers. Some of them added a few items which were not on their written orders without telling anyone. Some of these have caused some people to claim the Archway Monument has been haunted. Tour participants will see how these displays have been put together and how the sound changes from scene to scene as you walk through the nation’s history from buffalos to the Interstate Highways. This year the Archway has added a new section on Pawnee Scouts and how they had helped the army and pioneer people using the Oregon Trail.

This tour will be guided by ENF Executive Director, Terrence Ingram. During this tour Mr. Ingram will share his knowledge and love of pioneer history as well as the natural environment. One of the highlights of the tour will be witnessing the migration of Sandhill Cranes as up to as many as 500,000 of them stop in the area for several weeks on their journey north to their nesting grounds. These cranes will be observed feeding in the fields during the day and going to their roosts on the Platte River islands in the evening and then back out to the fields during the next morning. Everyone will have an opportunity to go to an Audubon blind early in the morning to watch the cranes leave their island roosts, and go to a bridge over the Platte River to watch the cranes come to their roosts in the evening. In addition to Sandhill Cranes other sights will include prairie dogs, bald eagles, snow geese, Whooping Cranes, Red-tailed Hawks and many other birds and animals. Last year a Snowy Owl was seen.

For the History part of the trip, the tour will visit many unique sites: Omaha’s Lewis and Clark Museum featuring a short video of their historic trip up the Missouri River, over the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean; Stuhr Wildlife Museum for a short video on Sandhill Cranes and a tour of their pioneer displays; Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, an eight story building over Interstate 80 with its history of the pioneers moving west; Fort Kearny, the first fort built on the Oregon Trail to protect pioneers using the trail from the Indians; Nebraska Prairie Museum, with its display of one of America’s World War II German Prisoner of War Camps; the Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History, featuring the world’s largest display of Whooping Cranes and three floors of many, many natural history exhibits of wildlife, Indians and pioneers including an enjoyable 3-D film in their 7-story I-Max Theater; including a final stop at the Amana Colonies on the way home. A lot of our nation’s history is packed into the four days of the tour.

Anyone going on the tour should bring binoculars, telescopes and cameras and be dressed for the normally warm weather during the day and very cool to cold nights. The cost for the tour is $975 per person or $875 per person, dbl occupancy. Members of ENF get a $100 per person discount from these rates. There will be an additional $30 per person fee for going to an Audubon blind early on one morning. Everyone who registers is automatically covered by a group insurance policy, which will refund some, if not all, of the premiums that have been paid, if he or she is unable to go on the tour.

All of this combined with great food makes for an exciting, quality and fun-filled educational four days. A different restaurant is visited for almost every meal, including: Cracker Barrel, Machine Shed, USA Steak Buffet; Iron Skillet, Country Kitchen, and Country Cookin’,

A copy of a tour brochure may be obtained by writing to the office: ENF, 300 East Hickory Street, Apple River, IL 61001 or calling 815-594-2306 or by going to ENF’s Website, eaglenature.com.

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For more information contact: Terrence N. Ingram, Exec. Director, Eagle Nature Foundation, 300 East Hickory St., Apple River, IL 61001 Phone 815-594-2306

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