| Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area | |
|---|---|
 Cragg Cabin at Goose Lake Prairie | |
  Map of theU.S. state ofIllinois showing the location of Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area Show map of Illinois Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Grundy County,Illinois,U.S. |
| Nearest city | Morris, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 41°22′03″N88°17′50″W / 41.36750°N 88.29722°W /41.36750; -88.29722 |
| Area | 2,537 acres (1,027 ha) |
| Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area is a 2,537-acre (1,027 ha)state park in Illinois. More than half of the state park is atallgrass prairie maintained as anIllinois Nature Preserve. It is located inGrundy County near the town ofMorris approximately 50 miles (80 km) southwest ofChicago.[1]
The Goose Lake region formed in the post-Wisconsin glaciation period as a flat, wet area dominated by layers of sand and silt laid down by postglacialoutwash. TheDes Plaines River andKankakee River converge near here to form theIllinois River.
Until heavilyexploited for its natural resources during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Goose Lake area was a stablewetland, with swathes of prairie grass surrounding the shallowGoose Lake. The region is in theCentral forest-grasslands transitionecoregion.
The Goose Lake area has historically been a favorite place for hunting, fishing, and gathering, withgeese,ducks, and other waterfowl; a wide variety offish andshellfish; and wet-footed game such asbeaver andmuskrat.
While the flat,alluvial soil of thisriparian bottomland was intensely fertile, the lack of adequate drainage made the land of the Goose Lake country unsuitable for subdivision foragriculture. A different fate awaited much of it.
The poorly drained sediment under and adjacent to Goose Lake was rich inclay. Starting as early as the 1820s, the sticky clay was extensively dug by settlers. Some of them were trainedpotters; they fired the clay in kilns to create pieces ofearthenware for frontier farm and household needs. The potters' settlement was calledJugtown, and the road to the park's visitor center is calledJugtown Road to this day. A few pieces ofJugtown earthenware have been saved by collectors, and some of the larger claypits can be seen today. Frontiersmen also dug ditches through the clay to partly drain the wet prairie forpastureland. Soil too damp for crops could be used forcattle.
Local drainage activity peaked in 1890, when local farmers formed a drainage district and cooperated to drain Goose Lake. The area's defining geographical feature disappeared and was replaced by damp farmland and wet pastureland. The drainage was a partial failure; if it had been a success, the remaining patches of prairie would have disappeared under the plow. Today, the park'sMarsh Loop Trail passes over part of the bed of the vanished lake.
Underneath the clay were thin veins ofcoal, dug from the beginning by the farmers and potters for local use. In the second half of the 1800s, regional coal mining increased to supply fuel to the growing city of Chicago. The main line of theSanta Fe Railroad was built adjacent to the prairie land, and the mines built spur tracks into the coal field to haul the coal to customers. Industrial strip mining, with motorized shovels, began in 1928. The miners left piles oftailings in the southern section of the remaining prairie, further altering the landscape.
The area was further altered after World War II with the construction of two great electrical generating plants, the oil-burning Collins Station and the nuclear-poweredDresden Nuclear Power Plant (1960). The Collins plant was constructed in conjunction with an adjacent 2,000-acre (810 ha) artificial pond,Heidecke Lake, dug to serve as a cooling pond for the generating plant. Heidecke Lake today serves as much of the northern boundary of Goose Lake Prairie. Ironically, the hand of man had destroyed one lake in the Illinois River bottomland, Goose Lake, and then created another, Heidecke Lake.
The first 250 acres (100 ha) of Goose Lake was purchased by Illinois for nature preservation purposes in 1969. The addition of additional parcels created the present-day Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area. The remaining patches of tallgrass prairie had been extensively altered by human activity during the preceding 150 years, but active management began to re-knit these patches into a unified swathe of natural grassland.
In 1998, two sites in the park were added to theNational Register of Historic Places,White and Company's Goose Lake Stoneware Manufactury andWhite and Company's Goose Lake Tile Works.
Unlike many of Illinois's state parks, Goose Lake Prairie is not primarily managed for hunting; visitors are encouraged to enjoy a tallgrass prairieecosystem, dominated bygrasses such asbig bluestem,Indian grass, andswitchgrass, and by floweringforbs such ascompass plants,coneflowers,goldenrod,shooting stars, andviolets. The state park's workers and managers maintain a seven-mile network oftrails throughout the park. Some of the park's patches of mature grassland sprout blades up to eight feet in height.
The patches of old-growth tallgrass prairie that have survived to the present day serve as a biotic refuge for many species that can live nowhere else, especially prairie-endemicmoths andbutterflies. Some rare prairie plants are especially adapted to feed and be fertilized by equally rare prairie insects. Lepidopterists have found thepapaipema moth, previously thought to be extinct, fluttering about Goose Lake Prairie's forbs and flowers.
The Cragg Cabin, a c. 1838 log cabin originally built in nearbyMazon, Illinois, has been relocated to Goose Lake Prairie as a tribute to the frontier heritage of thePrairie State.Together with the nearbyMidewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Goose Lake Prairie is a reminder of the tens of thousands of acres of tallgrass prairie that once lived in Illinois.
Goose Lake Prairie has been listed as anImportant Bird Area of Illinois.[2]
Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area is accessible from Exit 240 onInterstate 55.
