This is a treasure most Chicago land folks don’t know about. From the outside it doesn’t look like much, but once you pass through the gate, you are transformed to a time long, long ago. The black soil tall grass prairie is now a very rare Eco system. Do yourself a favor and check out the great work the folks here are doing to preserve it for generations to come.
Mary Anne E.
Place rating: 5 Glenview, IL
The James Woodworth Prairie is open to the public from the beginning of June to the end of August EVERYYEAR. Hours are 10 Am to 3PM Tuesday through Sunday. at all other times, visitors can call to make an appointment. Just google for the website and director’s contact info. This Prairie has been open to the public since the late 1960s. This is an amazing remnant black soil tall grass prairie. There are 260 plus species of plants… many are quite rare. The 5 acre prairie was never farmed, grazed by livestock, nor mowed. In effect the plants and creatures there have been there for thousands of years. Soil analysis has shown this prairie is 5000 years old! Rare species of plants, birds, insects reside here. The prairie changes all the time due to the cycles of nature. There is a colorful air conditioned interpretive center with displays and friendly staff. Trails can be walked, and there is a raised garden are all around the center so you can view rare plants more easily. A parking lot is within the preserve, and the Interpretive Center is wheel chair accessible. Driving past on Milwaukee Avenue and it looks like a nondescript field of weeds. Come inside and you can’t believe how colorful, how diverse, and how dense these amazing plants that once covered millions of acres in the Midwest. These are not cultivated plants like at the Chicago Botanic gardens. This is a place where you can see and imagine how it was in Illinois back before European settlers came and changed the environment and history forever. Oh there are crayfish there, and prairie mound building ants, and of course beautiful red and black long horned milkweed beetles, and a great diversity of butterflies, and so much more. Easy to find… just north of McDonalds, and entrance on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue. The Unilocal map to the right is very wrong. The location is off by many miles!
