A Lover of Art, Animals, and the Land
Renowned equestrian photographer and artist, Alexandra (Alix) K. Coleman, placed a conservation easement on her 16-acre Glomar Farm, an integral part of the Pigeon Run Greenway Corridor. Through the Trust's partnership with Charlestown Township, township, state, and county funds were used to ensure that Glomar Farm will remain undeveloped forever. Alix, who plans to use her property as a sanctuary for native plants rescued from development sites, tells her conservation story:
It is a rare case when land is ever put together again from the original tracts of land that were created by the first European settlers. Normally land is divided, re-divided, and so on. The first bill of sale traced to this property was dated 1785 and described the property as having 105 acres and the sale price was 275 pounds 10 shillings and three pence, in gold and silver money. Since then over the centuries the acreage on this property has been drastically reduced to a shadow of what it was. Normally that would be the end of the story, but in this case there is a sweet twist. Since I have moved here in 1991 there has been a blossoming of "conserved land" (started by the Burgoon Family) that has been put into the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, that has occurred in the immediate area around this property. Today I am pleased to say that Glomar Farm has just joined some of her neighbors in being part of a larger concept; to have a cluster of properties conserved together for greater betterment. As for Glomar Farm, I wonder if the original owners, Joseph and Rachael Williams, who owned this property in 1769, would be pleased to see a rallying of land owners joining the Trust in order to preserve what is left of this area. In a spiritual way we are reversing history by putting the land together again that has only been taken apart over the centuries.