Jackson-Schnyder Nature Preserve

In September 1929, the roughly 20-acre property was purchased by Julius Schnyder, a 40-year-old immigrant from Switzerland. Schnyder had fulfilled his dreams of becoming a “man of property” just before the stock market crashed. Schnyder would call the property home with his wife and five children while running a dry goods market in St. Mary-of-the-Woods village. In 1969, after 40 years of living on the property and laying his wife to rest, Schnyder needed to sell the land. And their paths would cross.

In September 1964, Marion Jackson would begin his 37-year career at Indiana State University as a life sciences professor and teaching part-time at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. After five years teaching at “the woods, “ Jackson would purchase this land less than a mile away from campus from Julius Schnyder. Schnyder died just one year after the sale on his 81st birthday.

For the following 40 years (coincidentally) Jackson would introduce his classrooms to his personal outdoor laboratory featuring many old-growth trees and abundant wildlife to study. At age 76, Jackson donated the land to the then newly formed Ouabache Land Conservancy in 2009 at the dedication of Jackson-Schnyder Nature Preserve. Jackson died in February 2019.

The preserve contains an old-growth forest on strongly rolling terrain. Two deep ravines bisect the property, which has a diverse display of spring wildflowers. A former farm has been converted into the prairie, and the tract has frontage along Little Sugar Creek. Volunteers established a hiking trail through the prairie and woods in 2020.

Find a safe place to park along the road and enter by walking around the red farm gate.

Read about dendrochronology at Jackson-Schnyder Nature Preserve.