Autumn at Herrick Lake
Herrick Lake After the retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier, the land that is now Herrick Lake Forest Preserve grew into prairies with scattered woodlands. For thousands of years, different groups of indigenous people passed through the area, some to hunt and move on, others to settle for varied periods of time. The last of these groups to call this land home was the Potawatomi, who had settled in the area by the late 1600s. Their well-traveled trails served as the basis for Butterfield and Warrenville roads. In 1833, around the time of the Treaty of Chicago, which moved the Potawatomi west of the Mississippi River, Ira Herrick moved near the small settlement of Wheaton and built his homestead in a densely wooded parcel that surrounded a small marshy lake. This marked the beginning of the land’s agricultural period, which would last over 100 years. Old fencerows, woodlot edges and fields of European grasses still stand in Herrick Lake Forest Preserve as remnants of this era. In 1925, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County purchased 90 acres of the original Herrick homestead. From the mid-1950s through the 1970s, additional scattered acquisitions expanded the preserve. Today, at 885 acres, Herrick Lake Forest Preserve is a substantial link in a 3,700-acre chain of open space that includes Danada, Warrenville Grove, St. James Farm and Blackwell forest preserves.
Size: 6720px × 4480px
Location: Herrick Lake, Wheaton, IL
Photo credit: © Plamen Stanev / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: alamy, autumn, beautiful, digital, fall, harmony, herrick, image, lake, matter, nice, photography, picture, plamen, season, space, stanev, time, unique, water
