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Illinois
Hiking Maps & Trails

Maps & Trails
Shawnee Forest Area: Campgrounds & Cabins
Busse Lake and Ned Brown Preserve Trails
Calumet Division Recreation Areas & Trail Guide
Palos & Sag Valley Division, Hiking Trails
Tinley Creek Trail Guide

N.W. Illinois State Park Index!

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.

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).

Palos & Sag Valley Division

Cook County Forest Preserve Trails Guide:

Palos & Sag Valley Division, [Regional Map, Cook Co.] (37K)

The Palos preserves comprise our largest and most diversified holding. Mostly hilly and forested, they are notable for scenic beauty and rich in history back to glacial and geologic times. Masses of hawthorns and crabapples bloom in spring; the woodlands provide colorful autumn foliage- There are fine upland meadows; many lakes, ponds and sloughs; a great variety and abundance of wildlife; and the best fishing waters in Cook County.

Points of Interest on the Map:

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)

1. Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center and Trails
2. Old Country Lane
3. Maple and Tampier Lakes boat docks-rowboats for hire
4. Site of original Argonne Laboratory for atomic research
5. Cross Country Ski Trail Area.
6. Dynamite Road nature trails
7. St. James Church and Cemetery, founded 1837. Site of Indian village, chipping station and signal station.
8. I & M Canal Bicycle Trail Parking lot
9. Landing Along Chicago Portage Canoe Trail-Stony Ford to Lemont Landing-14.4 Miles
10. Toboggan slides and shelter
11. Trail located on glacial ridge, called an esker
12. Trail thru wild isolated area with fine scenery
13. Model Airplane Flying Field

INTERESTING ACTIVITIES IN THE PALOS & SAG VALLEY:

• Large concentrations of waterfowl and shorebirds, including ducks, geese and egrets, resting and feeding on Longjohn, Saganashkee and McGinnis sloughs during the spring and fall migration periods.
• Blackberry, dewberry and raspberry patches plentiful in meadows and woodland openings at many locations and ripe for picking in July.
• Mushrooms plentiful in many woodlands during autumn.
• Wild prairie roses, some climbing to the tops of hawthorn and crabapple trees, along trail from St. James Church to site of original Argonne Laboratory.
• Spring wildflowers bloom first in Black Partridge Woods which, with its creek and big springs that flow the year around, was a winter retreat and chipping station for Indians.
• Pawpaw trees and shingle oaks in Pawpaw Woods-the northern limit of where those trees occur in Illinois. Spice bush also plentiful.
• Sycamores and an unusually large ironwood (hop hornbeam) tree at McClaughry Springs. Also a sheer cliff of sandy "groundhog" clay deposited by the last glacier.
• Bank swallows and kingfishers formerly nested in the sandy clay face of Swallow Cliff, just west of U.S. 45.
• At Swallow Cliff Woods picnic area, a grove of white pines planted in the 1920's.
• Kentucky Coffeetree and a very large elm at site of pioneer home south of 87th St. on east side of U.S. 45.
• Buffalo Woods, so named because it formerly was fenced to enclose a herd of buffalo.
• Hidden Pond Woods contains an example of a farm pond constructed by the original owner to water his livestock.
• These Palos Hills are the result of the last glacier that pushed its way this far south. The ponds and sloughs lie within potholes resulting from the melting of huge blocks of ice left by that glacier. The city of Chicago is founded on the flat bed of old Lake Chicago, ancestor of Lake Michigan.

Tinley Creek Trail Guide:

Tinley Creek Trails Map [Forest Preserve-Cook Co.], (112K)

History

These preserves are situated on a ridge of glacial drift known to geologists as the Tinley moraine. It was deposited by the last glacier, as it retreated from this area, on the easterly edge of the Valparaiso moraine deposited by that glacier after a previous and more southerly invasion.

Northerly and easterly lies the flat Chicago Plain, much lower, which was the bed of ancient Lake Chicago and largely swampland until recent times. Southwesterly, and also covered by the ancestor of Lake Michigan at its highest stage, are low areas known as the "Deep Prairie". Formerly large swamps, they are now drained by Tinley Creek, originally called Bachelor's Grove Creek, and Midlothian Creek. These streams, after the glacier disappeared, eroded deep channels thru the Tinley moraine and meandered across the Chicago Plain until, near what is now Blue Island, they emptied into Stony Creek. Stony Creek has been superseded by the Calumet-Sag Channel.

The human history of the Tinley Creek Division is typical of many Chicagoland areas. "Yankees" from New England states came first. Bachelor's Grove, a large wooded area including the forest preserve north of 151st St., was occupied about 1833 by a group of single men while perfecting their titles to tracts of land purchased at $1.25 per acre. Among them was Stephen Rexford, one of the founders of Blue Island. Each man had a five-acre woodlot in the grove.

The St. Mihiel and Oak Forest area was then called Cooper's Grove, but the reason for that name is unknown. In 1848 the name of its post office was changed to New Bremen and the one at Bachelor's Grove became Bremen.

This locality was settled largely by German people. After the Rock Island Railroad was completed to Chicago in 1852, a town called Bremen was platted at what is now Tinley Park It had street names such as Kirchen Strasse and Market Platz but the principal north and south street, Oak Park Ave, was called Bachelor Grove Avenue. Tinley Park, named for three Rock Island RR men, was incorporated as such in 1892.

Various species of waterfowl and shorebirds, some rare, may be observed feeding and resting in the marsh areas north of Vollmer Road during the spring and fall migration periods

Tinley Creek Activities List:.

• A high point along 159th Street, just east of Oak Park Avenue, provides an unusual view of the Chicago skyline, approximately 20 miles to the northeast.
• The Yankee Woods and St. Mihiel areas are abundant with spring and fall wildflowers, as well as spectacular autumn color. Small fragments of native prairie containing rare species of plant and insect life also occur in these areas.
• Blackberry, dewberry and raspberry patches plentiful in meadows- and woodland openings at many locations and ripe for picking in July.
• Mushrooms plentiful in many woodlands during autumn.
• The southern and central portions of Tinley Creek Division boast of numerous reforestations planted in the late 1960's as a part of the Forest Preserve District's ongoing program to preserve and re-establish examples of the native woodlands which existed here two hundred years ago.

Points of Interest, On the Map

Tinley Creek Division, [Northern Trails Map] (115K)
Tinley Creek Division, [Southern Trails Map] (119K)

1. Turtlehead Lake, one of several Forest Preserve lakes dug to provide earth fill for the Tri-State Tollway.
2. Deep ravines and gullies along Tinley Creek.
3. Tinley Creek Forestry Headquarters
4. Tinley Creek Woods, notable for a few huge oaks. surviving from the primeval forest in this region.
5. Camp Falcon, a camping center for youth groups by permit only.
6. Camp Sullivan, a camping center for youth groups by permit only.
7. Site of Goeselville, once a crossroads trading place and post office on the Midlothian Turnpike.
8. Carlson Springs, one of the few large springs now flowing in Cook County.
9. Midlothian Turnpike, originally an Indian trail and later a country road from Harlem Ave. and 151st St., thru Goeselville to Blue Island.
10. Oak Forest Hospital, Cook County institution for the indigent, aged and infirm.
11. Franciscan Monastery serving Oak Forest Hospital.
12. Indian Boundary Line, beginning at a point on the shore of Lake Michigan, 10 miles f mouth of the Chicago River. South boundary of a strip, 20 miles wide from Chicago to Ottawa, ceded by the Potawatomi and allied tribes in 1816.
13. Forest Preserve Tree Nursery
14. Model Airplane Flying Field
15. The George W. Dunne National Golf Course (18 Hole)

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