Paula Dunn

Attention bird watchers — it’s almost time for the Christmas Bird Count! You may recall the column about the Christmas Bird Count I wrote a few years ago, but just to refresh everyone’s memory — the CBC is a project the National Audubon Society has undertaken annually for 121 years. From December 14 through January…

Okay, I’ll confess. I didn’t have time to do any in depth research this week, so, this being the season for holiday pitch-ins and parties, I decided to raid my recipe files for some easy cookie recipes. I got this one from a clerk I worked with at Speedway Public Library in the 1980s. She…

Today, Hamilton County has several small airports, both public and private, but back in 1945 there was only one and I’ll lay odds most people don’t know where it was located. Fishers? Carmel? Noblesville? Nope. It was Sheridan. In February of 1945, the United States Department of Commerce notified the Town of Sheridan that Blackhawk…

A recent discussion with a friend about cranberries got me started wondering when cranberries, turkey and all the other traditional Thanksgiving dishes began to appear on Hamilton County tables. Unfortunately, I can’t provide any exact dates because we’re missing so many issues of the county’s pre-Civil War newspapers. However, other Indiana newspapers make it clear…

It recently occurred to me that, although the life of Hamilton County pioneer William Conner is fairly well known, few people are probably familiar with his parents’ story. Their history is just as interesting and, in some ways, not that different from William Conner’s own life. Richard Conner, the father of William Conner, was born…

It’s a reader feedback week! The 2022-2023 winter forecast column prompted responses from several people. Nancy Lacy emailed that WISH-TV weatherman Randy Ollis reported seeing a dark brown wooly worm, and Lisa Hayner and Mari Briggs provided the first sightings I’ve received of striped wooly worms  — the kind that are mostly brown, with black…

Noblesville has been visited by several past, future and incumbent United States Presidents over the years, but the biggest political rally ever held here might well have been in honor of a man who lost a presidential election. James G. Blaine, a Republican from Maine, lost the 1884 presidential race to Grover Cleveland, but from…

I couldn’t let Halloween pass without an appropriately spooky column! Westfield’s Michael and Nicole Kobrowski are probably best known for their books on the paranormal and for their Historic Indiana Ghost Walks & Tours, but did you know they also conduct ghost investigations? I’m not talking about “giggle-giggle-let’s-scare-ourselves-silly” ghost hunting. These are serious inquiries into…

I can’t believe it’s time to do the winter weather forecast column again. Where did the summer go? As always, I need to point out that I’m not in the business of making predictions myself. I just gather data from the folk signs Sheridan’s weather expert, Clara Hoover, used to create her winter weather forecasts.…

When I took over Jerry Snyder’s column space in the Times 12 years ago, I made a conscious decision to emulate her conversational style and — especially — her positive outlook. Occasionally, however, something really wrong arises that affects the community as a whole and I feel obligated to speak up about it. When I…