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Chicago-land Bikeshop Database

Busse Lake and Ned Brown Preserve Trails
Calumet Division Recreation Areas & Trail Guide
The Chicago Portage Bike Trails
Des Plaines River Trails Guide (Des Plaines Division)
Des Plaines River Trail Guide (Indian Boundary Division)

N.W. Illinois State Park Index!

I & M Canal Bicycle Trail
North Branch, Cook Co. Bike Trail Info.
Palos & Sag Valley Division Trails Guide
Salt Creek Division Points of Interest
Southern Illinois Campgrounds and Cabins
Thorn Creek Bicycle Trail
Tinley Creek Bicycle Trail Guide

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Maps & Trails

• Arie Crown Forest Trails Map, [Cook Co. Preserve], (28K)
• Calumet Forest Preserve Regional Map, Cook Co., (24K)
• Calumet Forest Preserve, Eastern Trails Map, (102K)
• Calumet Forest Preserve, Western Trails Map, (103K)
• Chicago Portage Canoe Trail, [Waterways--Cook Co.]( 85K)
• Deer Grove Forest Preserve Trail Map, Cook Co. (101K)
• Des Plaines Division Regional Trail Map, Cook Co.(25K)
• Des Plaines River Trail Map, [North, Des Plaines Division] (76K)
• Des Plaines River Trail Map, [South, Des Plaines Division] (85K)
• Indian Boundary Division, Regional Trail Map, Cook Co.(25K)
• Des Plaines River Trail Map, [North,Indian Boundary Div.](99K)
• Des Plaines River Trail Map, [South, Indian Boundary Div.](76K)
• Illinois Lodges and Marinas Overview Map, High Resolution] '98 (220K)
• Illinois Major Cities Overview Map, '98 (220K)
• Illinois Rivers and Lakes Overview Map, '98 (220K)
• Illinois Welcome Centers Map, [High Resolution] '98 (220K)
• I & M Canal Trail Map, [Forest Preserve-Cook Co.] (120K)
• Ned Brown Preserve & Busse Lake Trails Map, [Cook Co.], (176)
• North Branch Trail Map, [Forest Preserve-Cook Co.] (97K)
• North Branch Division, Regional Trail Map; Cook Co. (23K)
• North Branch Trail Map, [Division], (116K)
• Palos & Sag Valley Division, [Regional Map, Cook Co.] (37K)
• Palos & Sag Valley Trails Map, [Northern Area], (172K)
• Palos & Sag Valley Trails Map, [Southern Area], (141K)
• Palos & Sag Valley Trails Map, [West Area+Blk.Partridge Woods](172K)
• Salt Creek Division, [Regional Map, Cook Co.] (23K)
• Salt Creek Division, [Eastern Trails Map], (123K)
• Salt Creek Division, [Western Trails Map], (119K)
• Salt Creek Division, [Chicago Portage Trails Map], (28K)
• Shawnee National Forest-Location Map, Low resolution '98 (20K)
• Shawnee National Forest, Camping and Trails Map-Eastern Areas '98 (152K)
• Shawnee National Forest, Camping and Trails Map-Central Areas '98 (156K)
• Shawnee National Forest, Camping and Trails Map-Western Areas '98 (150K)
• North Eastern Illinois Regional Trails Map, (176K)
• North Western Illinois State Parks and Wildlife Areas Map, '98 (46K)
• Skokie Division Forest Preserve, [Regional Map], (21K)
• Skokie Division Forest Preserve, [Northern Trails Map], (140K)
• Skokie Division Forest Preserve, [Southern Trails Map], (120K)
• Thorn Creek Trail Map, [Forest Preserve-Cook Co.] (63K)
• Tinley Creek Division, [Regional Map, Cook Co.] (28K)
• Tinley Creek Division, [Northern Trails Map], (115K)
• Tinley Creek Division, [Southern Trails Map], (119K)
• Tinley Creek Trails Map [Forest Preserve-Cook Co.], (112K)        

Busse Lake and Ned Brown Preserve Trails

Cook County Forest Preserve, (N. W. Suburb-Chicago)

Ned Brown Preserve & Busse Lake Trails Map, [Cook Co.], (176K)

HABITAT and WILDLIFE

Busse Forest Nature Preserve is a 437 acre woodland within the 3,700 acre Ned Brown Preserve. This area is also classified as a Registered National Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior. This area is an unusually rich forest of oak, sugar maple and basswood on the upland sites and swamp white oak and ash on the flat and poorly drained areas. Marshes occupy the larger depressions. There is an abundance of wildflowers and shrubs - exceptionally rich and colorful are the spring wildflowers which include the large flowered trillium.

Bird Watching is especially good during the spring and fall migrations for waterfowl and shorebirds. The Shallow Water Areas have the potential to support large numbers of a wide variety of wildlife. These areas will produce dense aquatic vegetation for food and homes for ducks, goose, shorebirds, muskrat, mink and other animals. In addition these areas will provide excellent spawning areas for fishes - especially northern pike. The "@' of these wood beds afford excellent fishing areas.

There is a sizable herd of white tailed deer that thrive in this area due to ample food and good cover.

The Elk Herd is a popular exhibit for observation of these once native animals. The herd is located in a fourteen acre enclosure at Arlington Heights and Higgins Roads.

BICYCLING and HIKING
There are twelve (12) miles of bicycle trails planned for this area. In addition there are many miles of hiking trails for visual enjoyment of wooded areas, open fields, marshes and lakes.

PICNICKING
There are many single family picnic areas within the Busse Woods complex; however, there are designated areas for group picnics which require a permit from the Picnic Permit Office in the Daley Center, Chicago. Picnic areas are equipped with simple facilities: parking, potable water, sanitary convenience, picnic tables and trash receptacles.

WINTER SPORTS
Cross-Country Skiing is permitted upon any of the trails and open areas within the District - except in the snowmobile areas or upon the lake surface.
Ice Skating will be permitted on the North Pool where a special area will be scraped free of snow. Ice thickness must be 4-inches.
Snowmobiling is restricted to the area so designated on the south side of Golf Road, and east of Frontage Road. Area open 8 a.m. to I 0 p. m. when 4-inches of snow base exists. Snowmobiles must be registered with both the State of Illinois and @ Forest Preserve District.

SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
The Model Airplane Flying field is maintained specifically for this recreational use. Refined upkeep of the area is allowed by special clubs or groups.

BUSSE LAKE

This water impoundment on Salt Creek was designed to serve two purposes; flood control and recreation. Year after year the creek waters downstream become increasingly damaging during flood stage. As a flood preventive measure, the waters are now hold back and are available as an excellent recreation facility.

To provide sufficient depth for boating and fishing, approximately 25% of the lake basin was deepened to a depth of over ten feet. To further improve on the habitat, large areas were deepened to four and six feet. These lake depths are shown on the reverse side.

The 590 acre lake is the largest in the Forest Preserve District and has a very diversified habitat which provides excellent spawning sites for a wide variety of fish and natural setting for other forms of wildlife.

The project and its facilities were made possible through a cooperative program of the Cook County Forest Preserve District, U.S. Soil Conservation Service and the Illinois Division of Waterways.

Facilities In this preserve designed for barrier free access Include: Comfort Stations, Fishing walls, Boat Rental Areas, and Model Airplane Flying Field.

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Calumet Division Recreation Areas & Trail Guide

Calumet Forest Preserve Regional Map, Cook Co., (24K)

History

This division was named for the river that, on maps and in accounts of early explorers, was variously called the Konomick, Killamick, Calamick, and other versions of its Indian name. Calumet, a word for the ceremonial pipe of peace, eventually became the name commonly used and, on a map of the Chicago region published in 1851 by James H. Rees., this stream was called the Little Calumet River.

It has a curiously complicated history. At one time, long ago, the Little Calumet flowed westward from its source in La Porte County, Indiana, parallel to the lake shore and only a few miles from it, and entered Lake Michigan near Riverdale. When the first settlers came, the lake had receded to its present level and the river, making a hairpin bend at Blue Island, meandered eastward to an outlet north of Miller, Indiana. The upper and lower parts then flowed parallel to each other but in opposite directions, separated by a series of alternating sand ridges and lagoons or swales.

Eventually a channel, called the Calumet River, was dug from near Hegewisch to an outlet at Calumet Harbor, South Chicago. This reversed the flow of the lower part, now called the Grand Calumet River, and also provided outlets for Lake Calumet and Wolf Lake.

The Calumet-Sag Channel, started in 1911 and completed in 1922, was constructed by the Sanitary District of Chicago primarily to divert the flow of the Little Calumet, Grand Calumet, their tributaries, and the sewage emptied into them, from Lake Michigan to the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in the Des Plaines River valley. It also served as a narrow minor route for barge traffic to and from the steel mills, refineries and other industrial plants on or near the south end of Lake Michigan. Now this channel is being widened and deepened to become a vital part of the Illinois Deep Waterway system.

Completion of the St. Lawrence Seaway made it possible for ocean going freighters and tankers to ply between Chicago and foreign ports. To accommodate them and the rapidly growing Calumet Industrial District, Lake Calumet is being developed as a deep water harbor connected with Lake Michigan by the Calumet River, and with the Deep Waterway by the "Cal-Sag" canal.

The forest preserve areas in this division, other than that part of Dan Ryan Woods at the north end of the Blue Island ridge, are situated on the remarkably flat Chicago Plain-originally the bed of Lake Chicago, ancestor of Lake Michigan. As the last glacier melted away from this region, its waters created this lake that extended westward to LaGrange and southward to Homewood and Glenwood. It had two outlets-one through the Des Plaines valley; the other through the Sag valley-around Mt. Forest Island and what is now the Argonne Forest in the Palos Preserves.

At its highest stage, about 60 feet above the present level of Lake Michigan, part of the Blue Island ridge stood from 10 to 35 feet above the water. That ridge, about 6 miles long and a mile or more in width, is a thick moraine of drift deposited by the glacier.

Prehistoric aborigines built mounds, now destroyed, on high ground near Blue Island, South Chicago, Riverdale and Thornton. Later, there was an important Indian village at Blue Island and several trails converged there. Other villages were located near Hegewisch, 95th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, Thornton, South Chicago, Worth, and Palos Park.

Originally the great swamps around Lake Calumet, Wolf Lake, and in the Saganashkee valley west and northwest of Blue Island, furnished homes and food for beaver, otter, muskrats, mink, and vast numbers of waterfowl, wading birds and shorebirds. The lakes, rivers and creeks teemed with fish. In all directions from the Blue Island ridge were wet prairies densely covered with tall grasses and wild flowers. Early settlers found an abundance of prairie chicken, deer and other game. Bobcats and prairie wolves apparently were numerous, and there are accounts of lynx, panther, and even bear being killed.

The Indian Boundary Line was the south boundary of a strip 20 miles wide, ceded to the U.S. in 1816 by the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, providing a canal route and free travel from Chicago to the Illinois River. This line extends southwest to the Kankakee River. It begins on the shore of Lake Michigan at a point which was 10 miles south of the mouth of the Chicago River. That point is also the mouth of the Calumet River'

Thornton-Blue Island Road was originally part of Hubbard's Trail [Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard] from Chicago to Danville, and the Vincennes Trace to Vincennes, Indiana, on the Wabash River. In 1834 it was made a State Road, marked with milestones. The north end of it survives in modern Chicago as State Street.

Blue Island is one of the oldest towns in Cook County. The first settler, Thomas Courtney, came there in 1834. Norman Rexford came to the "long wood" in 1835 and, in 1836, built a hotel at the south end of the ridge. He was postmaster of Worth P.O. established there in 1838. In 1860 its name was changed to Blue Island which became the legal name of the village in 1872. Peter Barton came in 1837 and, in 1839, platted a town called Portland. It extended south from Vermont St. to the township line, and from "Wabash Road" (Western Ave.) to Ashland Ave. and the original junction of Stony Creek with the river.

Points of Interest:

• Dedicated Nature Preserve
• Good shoreline fishing (Powderhorn and Wolf Lakes)
• Overlook with exceptional scenic view
• Toboggan slide and slopes for winter coasting.
• Calumet Division Headquarters.

Points of Interest on the Map:

Calumet Forest Preserve, Eastern Trails Map, (102K)
Calumet Forest Preserve, Western Trails Map, (103K)

1. Boulder marking site of Indian signal station and camp ground overlooking Chicago Plain eastward and northward.
2. Exceptional view of Chicago skyline.
3. Indian Boundary Line.
4. Thornton-Blue Island Road (Hubbard's Trail)
5. Model airplane flying field
6. Boat launching site.
7. Joe Louis" The Champ" Golf Course
8. Eggers Grove. One of the few places in Cook County where sassafras trees are native. Notable for shorebirds nesting in the marsh north of Wolf Lake and many others stopping there during migrations.
9. Wolf Lake State Park and Conservation Area (State of Illinois)
10. Powderhorn Lake. Excavated to provide earth fill for the Calumet Skyway.
11. Burnham Woods Golf Course (18 hole).

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Des Plaines River Trail

Des Plaines Division Regional Trail Map, Cook Co.(25K)

Des Plaines Division:

Des Plaines River Trail Map, [North, Des Plaines Division] (76K)
Des Plaines River Trail Map, [South, Des Plaines Division] (85K)

Map Locations:

1. Low dam with ramp for canoes and rowboats (shown at two locations).
2. Gorgeous fall colors-Hard Maples (shown at five locations).
3. Methodist Camp Ground-typical of many such sites for annual gatherings owned and maintained by religious organizations.
4. Site of Indian Village.
5. Indian Trail Tree.
6. Dam No. 2
7. Site of Pioneer Cabin-Huge Cottonwoods-scenic area.
8. Indian Portage to North Branch of Chicago River.
9. Dam No. 1 (scenic area).
10. Indian Charcoal pits (Chipping Station).
11. River Trail Nature Center
12. Youth Group Camp (by permit only)

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Indian Boundary Division Guide:
Des Plaines River Trail:
Indian Boundary Division, Regional Trail Map, Cook Co.(25K)

Points of Interest:

• Shoreline fishing-including Bluegills, Large-mouth Bass, Crappies and Bullheads.
• Winter coasting & sledding area.
• Areas notable for wildflowers and other vegetation -Examples: A great variety of spring wildflowers, some uncommon, carpets Thatcher Woods; huge elms, cottonwoods and silver maples are also found in Thatcher Woods; skunk cabbage and marsh marigolds are found in wet places in the woods south of Che-Che-Pin-Qua Woods and Schiller Woods South; white trillium in the spring, blue beech and large sugar maples are found north of Camp Fort Dearborn and Dam No. 4.
• Indian Boundary Division Headquarters.

Points of Interest on the Map:

Des Plaines River Trail Map, [North,Indian Boundary Div.](99K)
Des Plaines River Trail Map, [South, Indian Boundary Div.](76K)

1. Trailside Museum-exhibits of native animals.
2. Triton Botanic Garden-summer floral display garden; parking at college
3. Evans Field---site of Indian Village and chipping station. There were several Indian burial places and temporary villages along their main trail following the Des Plaines River. just east of Evans Field, there were five mounds built by prehistoric Indians.
4. Indian Boundary Line-north line of a strip 20 miles wide from Lake Michigan to Ottawa ceded to the whites by the Potawatomi in 1816.
5. Part of La Framboise Reserve-granted to a half-breed Indian for aid to the whites at the Fort Dearborn massacre.
6. St. Joseph Cemetery-site of Indian Village.
7. Model airplane flying field.
8. Robinson Reserve-granted to Alexander Robinson (Chief Che-Che-Pin-Qua) for many years of aid to the whites.
9. Indian Cemetery-graves of Chief Robinson and family.
10. . Low dam with ramp for canoes and rowboats (shown at two locations)
11. . "Fountain of Youth" Water from these wells is believed to be of exceptional quality.

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