“A sanctuary in the truest sense of the word.”

That’s what Margaret Finley Shackelford and Ruth Finley envisioned when they willed the family’s magnificent house and property to the Audubon Society, and today that gift has more than fulfilled its promise as Strawberry Plains Audubon Center, the Society’s state headquarters and a premiere natural and historic treasure. Here, more than 200 species of birds spread their wings over 2500 acres of diverse wildlife habitat. 15 miles of walking trails allow visitors to explore forest and woodland, and ramble through the beautiful gardens of native plants. The house presiding over it all was once a grand planter’s home, burned by Union soldiers and then restored, and now, a sanctuary offering education and hospitality for the whole world, natural and human alike.

At the Hummingbird Migration Celebration every September, the “featured guest” is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which flocks by the thousands to the Center’s forests, gardens and feeders. Experts are on hand to band the delicate creatures, and many guests are themselves given the chance to release the birds back into the wild.

More outdoor pleasures are to be had at the Fitch Farms-Galena Plantation, where you can trail ride over a 7,000 game preserve; you may want stay overnight in one of the farm’s well-equipped cabins. There’s also the lovely and serene Chewalla Lake and Wall Doxey State Park.

And once a year, if you’re so inclined you can shoulder a musket, don a Confederate or Union uniform and head for the open fields to charge into battle—or just come as you are to watch—at the annual reenactment of the Battle of Davis Mills in Michigan City. Although the reenactment is not held on the actual site, organizers have gone to great lengths to create an atmosphere of authenticity on the undeveloped 500-acre farm site, including the construction of earthworks duplicating those used in the actual battle.