© J. Adrian Wylie

Aunita Erskine

Guardian of the Shanghai Prairie

by John Hilton

posted 8/23/2010

"The Indians called this the Burnt River District," says Aunita Erskine as she tromps across the Shanghai Prairie. According to local legend--which, Erskine cheerfully stresses, is just a legend--it's called "Shanghai" because Chinese workers camped here long ago while working on the railroad track that borders the thirty-five-acre lowland just north of St.

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