Bloomington as seen from a drone. Photo by Rodney Margison
BY SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS • PHOTOGRAPHY BY RODNEY MARGISON
One hundred and 11 years ago, work was completed on our courthouse in the Square. But the origins of that building, of the weathervane in the shape of a fish that adorns its summit, and of Bloomington itself, all took place—depending on how you look at it—either a century earlier or 250 million years ago. Scott Russell Sanders, essayist, novelist, teacher—our Mark Twain—casts a wondrous, pondering eye on that weathervane. This story first appeared in the August/September 2007 issue of Bloom. On the occasion of the city’s bicentennial, we felt it worthy of being published again.
