| Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area | |
|---|---|
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area) | |
  Map of theU.S. state ofIllinois showing the location of Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area Show map of Illinois Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Location | Pike County,Illinois,USA |
| Nearest city | Griggsville, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 39°40′42″N90°38′43″W / 39.67833°N 90.64528°W /39.67833; -90.64528 |
| Area | 1,140 acres (460 ha) |
| Established | 1970 |
| Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
TheRay Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area is a 1,140-acre (460 ha) state park located nearGriggsville inPike County, Illinois. It borders on theIllinois River and is primarily made of steeply sloped bluffland that is part of the river's valley. Heavily wooded, this region is managed forwhitetail deer hunting. The Ray Norbut complex also includesBig Blue Island, a 100-acre (40 ha) riparian island in the Illinois River. The park is managed by theIllinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).[1]
The mainland section of the Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area is made up of Illinois River blufflandoak andhickory temperate hardwood forest. It centers onNapoleon Hollow, a steep-sided ravine cut into the limestone bluff, that discharges rainwater from the forest down into the Illinois River. Whitetail deer and a wide variety of small mammals thrive on the acornmast generated by the oak/hickory forest. Arborists took core samples from twowhite oak trees in 2001, and found that one tree was 378 years old and the other one 322 years old.[2]
Big Blue Island is wooded with wetland trees such as thecottonwood,silver maple, andwillow. The island, and the mainland river banks and bluffs surrounding it, are noted wintering spots of thebald eagle, which eats theAsian carps and bottom-feeding fish that live in the Illinois River.
Archeological evidence indicates that the Napoleon Hollow area has been used by hunters for over 7,000 years.[3] The region's obvious resources attracted Euro-American settlement, with frontiersmen founding the village of Big Blue Hollow at the southern end of the state park about 1840. After several decades of life as a local center for hunting, fishing, and grain-milling, Big Blue Hollow was bypassed by Illinois railroads, and the hamlet dwindled out of existence.
Another village site within the state park,Griggsville Landing, met a similar fate. Although the landing servedsteamboats during the decades prior to the Civil War, the landing could not survive the triumph of railroad technology over steamboating. A small factory ruin, theGriggsville Landing Lime Kiln (circa 1850), survives as a reminder of the vanished village.
The state of Illinois acquired 860 acres (350 ha) of the area in and around Napoleon Hollow in 1970, dedicating the land to hunting as thePike County Conservation Area. The conservation area was enlarged by a further 280 acres (110 ha) in 1988. IDNR changed the name of the park fromPike County Conservation Area toRay Norbut Fish and Wildlife Area in 1995 to honor a longtime head of the state parks division of the Department.
TheCentral Illinois Expressway, now part ofInterstate 72, was a keyIllinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) project of the 1980s, meant to create the first four-lane, divided-highway link between western Illinois (particularly theQuincy, Illinois area) and the U.S.Interstate Highway System. IDOT engineers decided that the best place for the freeway to cross the Illinois River was through the Pike County Conservation Area, with the four-lane highway usingNapoleon Hollow as a ramp to achieve the gradient necessary to mount the bluffs that border the Illinois River's western edge.
Environmentalists protested the use of the historic hollow and its bald-eagle habitat for construction purposes. However, Illinois GovernorJames R. Thompson decided to follow the engineers' recommendations and build the Western Illinois segment of Interstate 72 through Napoleon Hollow.
As a result of this decision, what is now the Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area is bifurcated by Interstate 72. The interstate's Exit 35, at Griggsville, provides access to the state park.
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