Return to Griggsville

Two weeks after my recent stop in Griggsville, Illinois (Purple Martin Capital of the Nation), I came back with my wife to show her the purple martins. Much to my surprise, the big mural on the south side of IL 107 had been painted over with white paint. The mural was in need of touch up, but I didn’t expect it to be gone so soon. After this surprise, I took my wife to the park to see the purple martins at Bird City Boys which is adjacent to the park. We came at a good time because two people were inspecting the bird houses. One of them introduced himself as Ben Westfall, owner of Bird City Birds. He gave us a lot of information about the birds and let us see eggs and baby birds inside a couple of the houses. I gave him my card and told him that I had been there two week prior and had posted my photos on greatbirdpics.com. Before I left, he insisted on giving me some souvenirs (lower right of photo). He gave me the pileated woodpecker print after I mentioned that I liked them. He also gave me an eastern bluebird print along with a purple martin print. Ben told us where other purple martin houses were located in town and also in nearby Pittsfield. I asked about the mural being gone and he said that the owner (his ex-brother-in-law) was going to eventually put up a new, different mural, but that it would have a purple martin in it along with other scenes. The left side of the photo is an advertisement from the J.L. Wade Co. for their bird houses. In the upper right corner is a promotional piece that includes a drawing of Mr. Wade and his beloved Purple Martin train that I mentioned in a previous post. Ben has a Facebook page about his bird called “Ben Wolfpack Westfall”.