Judge Otis Lyckman, Kay Hindes, and Mark Wolf. County judge for 25 years, Lyckman has a strong interest in historic preservation in Menard County. He led efforts to preserve and restore the presidio. Judge Lyckman and his wife, Dionitia, gave their permission for excavations to proceed once the mission was found on their property east of Menard. Their close cooperation was critical to the successful investigation of the mission site. Judge Lyckman was particularly fascinated by the fired daub marking the mission. He said that he had noticed these baked clay lumps in the past as he plowed his alfalfa field. They seemed out of place, and not a natural thing to be occurring in his field. He wondered what they were, but never dreamed that they were evidence of the mission buildings that burned on his land in 1758.
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