A
longtime educator and administrator with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens
Point has donated 14 acres in northeast Portage County to the UWSP Foundation
for education and research.
Burdette
“Bud” Eagon of Amherst Junction donated the town of Alban property along Flume
Creek to support the university and its Central Wisconsin Environmental Station
(CWES).
Eagon
retired from UW-Stevens Point in 1984 after 33 years of service.
The
Burdette and Sarah Eagon Nature Education Preserve will be managed by the
UW-Stevens Point College of Natural Resources, primarily as a CWES
environmental education field site. The name honors Eagon and his wife,
who passed away in 2000.
The
land, located four miles north of CWES, will greatly benefit students using the
facility, said CWES Director Scott Johnson. It has frontage on Flume Creek, a
Class 1 trout stream that eventually flows into the Little Wolf River.
The
land may be used for supervised field trips for children attending youth camps
and school-age programs offered by CWES, undergraduate stream studies on Flume
Creek, and wildlife observation and study. Possible uses in the future
are a hoop house garden and a fruit tree orchard to grow fresh organic produce
for CWES’s on-site food service, Johnson said.
“Bud
and Sarah have been wonderful supporters of UW-Stevens Point for many years,
and this land donation is an outstanding example of their lifelong commitment
to education,” said Chancellor Bernie Patterson. “We are grateful for
this generous gift and pleased to continue the Eagon legacy at this nature
preserve.”
The
Eagons owned the parcel for about 50 years. The family planted 3,000 to 4,000
red pines on the property, Eagon said. “Sarah and I were interested in new
exploratory things to keep the kids busy and interested in nature. We tromped
around looking at flowers and trees.”
The
parcel has historical significance. A sawmill powered by a water wheel on Flume
Creek operated there in 1876. It included a boarding house, and in 1893, the
Alban Post Office was established there. It burned down in 1903. The Eagon
children enjoyed exploring the remains of the foundation and vicinity, he said.
More recently, he and son Tom harvested wood for heating.
A
former dean of what is now the university’s School of Education, Eagon served
as vice chancellor of academic affairs. He left a legacy of innovation and
international renown. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he made numerous trips to
South Vietnam as an education consultant in collaboration with the U.S. Agency for
International Development. Among his achievements was establishing the Native
American Center at UW-Stevens Point in 1978. He wrote a grant that led to the
migrant worker summer school program in Wautoma in 1965.
All seven Eagon children attended
UW-Stevens Point. The Eagons established the Brian Eagon Scholarship in the
Biology Department after their oldest son died in car accident when he was a
junior. Granddaughter Sara Schliesmann recently graduated from the College of
Natural Resources.
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