A grand welcome
Published 10:28 am Friday, July 29, 2011

People attending the unveiling for the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center's new Welcome Center are pictured inside the circle. -- Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Monument opens to greet center’s visitors
Visitors who come to the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center have a big, warm welcome waiting for them. Or at least a big Welcome Circle.
The nature center’s monument-like display is finished, after more than two years of work and a lot of support.

Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com Doraine Graff looks at the new map of the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center at the new Welcome Circle that was unveiled Thursday night.
“I really like it,” said Larry Dolphin at the Welcome Circle’s dedication ceremony Thursday. “I think it’s great.”
The display, which features two log-shaped granite benches and a large map, sits close to the nature center’s entrance.
“It’s unique,” said Helen Dixon, spectator. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The monument took Twin Cities artist Chris Tully about two years to complete, a year longer than he originally planned. The monument was expected to be inside the Ruby Rupner auditorium before Dolphin asked Tully to create a display updating the large trail map near the entrance.
“We wanted a map and we wanted an inscription,” Dolphin said.
The updated, accurate trail map is surrounded by a granite collage of trees with several inscriptions honoring Jay Hormel, who bought the land the nature center sits on and had more than 200,000 trees planted starting in 1927.
The map faces due north, something Dolphin is proud of. The nature center’s third-grade unit in part deals with locations and directions, and Dolphin is excited to use the Welcome Circle as an educational tool.
“It’s my version of a traditional monument piece,” Tully said.
The Welcome Circle will have a few additions soon, including more sidewalks and an oak tree or two. Dolphin hopes people come to appreciate it as much as they’ve appreciated the trees and prairie at the nature center, with the Welcome Circle poetically straddling the environs.
“It’s an island,” Dolphin said.

The ribbon is cut on the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center's new Welcome Circle Thursday night. From left: Project artist Chris Tulley, donator Gordy Kuehne, donator Bob Roberts, Friends of the Nature Center president Terry Taylor, donator Marsha Kuehne and nature center executive director Larry Dolphin.