Flyover Blackwell Forest Preserve at DuPage County
Image details
Contributor:
Plamen Stanev / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
FAC1T3File size:
23.7 MB (770.4 KB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3840 x 2160 px | 32.5 x 18.3 cm | 12.8 x 7.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
6 December 2015Location:
Blackwell Forest Preserve, DuPage, IllinoisMore information:
Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville walk on land that the retreating Wisconsin Glacier shaped 12, 000 to 15, 000 years ago. In fact, the glacier’s meltwaters left behind much of the soil that covers DuPage County today. After the glacier’s retreat, savannas with widely spaced oak trees formed on the higher ground while the lower-lying ground became home to marsh and prairie plants. Preserve History: In the 1830s, Erastus Gary, one of Winfield Township’s first settlers and a founder of Gary, Ind., made his home on the land that is now Blackwell Forest Preserve. There, he operated a grist mill — Gary’s Mill — east of the West Branch of the DuPage River. 130 years later, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County purchased the land and named the new preserve for Roy C. Blackwell, a former District president. The Forest Preserve District concluded that it could convert a quarry on the south side of the preserve into a multiuse area that would both retain stormwater and offer visitors a variety of recreational activities. The quarry became Silver Lake. Authorities later chose Blackwell to be the site of a new county landfill. The resulting Mount Hoy operated from 1965 to 1973 and provided valuable knowledge in managing solid waste. Today, Mount Hoy serves as a scenic overlook and popular birding site as well as a winter tubing hill. In 1977, Blackwell made paleontological history when District employees working at McKee Marsh uncovered the 13, 000-year-old skeleton of a woolly mammoth, one of the oldest finds of its kind in northeastern Illinois.