You’ve been doing a lot of walking, mostly from
one historic site to the next. It’s not really the legwork that wears
you out — you’ve simply taken in all the details a mind can
absorb. Tourism can be exhausting. If you need a change of pace, why not check out one of
Springfield’s more natural settings? The city offers great parks,
nature spots, gardens, and prairie wilderness. All Springfield parks are
open dawn to dusk. Take time to relax, have a picnic, and freshen up for
the next historic site on your agenda.
ADAMS WILDLIFE SANCTUARY This is the perfect place for a quick nature walk
without having to drive out of town. Just off one of Springfield’s
busiest streets, Clear Lake Avenue, the sanctuary is a hidden jewel
that’s accessible in minutes. Once a mid-19th-century farm,
it’s now a wooded haven for birds and birdwatchers. One trail takes
15 minutes to complete; a longer trail takes 45 minutes. All told, the
sanctuary features about one mile of trails. The visitor center offers
information about the trees, plants, and birds commonly encountered. Adams Wildlife Sanctuary, 2315 E. Lake Ave.,
217-544-5781. www.springfield.k12.il.us/adamswildlife. Go east of downtown
on Madison Avenue, which turns into Clear Lake.
CARPENTER PARK NATURE PRESERVE This 424-acre park, with a 341-acre nature preserve,
hugs the sleepy Sangamon River just north of town along Peoria
Road/Business I-55, just south of the Rail Golf Course. The park includes
10 trails, a large shelter with a fireplace, and several picnic tables.
It’s just a short drive from the Illinois State Fairgrounds and Oak
Ridge Cemetery and adjacent to the 270-acre B. Gurgens Park, a nature
preserve in the raw. Heading west from Ohio, William Carpenter came upon
what is now the park with his family in the fall of 1820. Native Americans
from the Kickapoo and Tamaroa tribes were its residents at the time.
Despite the Native Americans’ departure, the land remained fairly
undeveloped through the years — you’re not going to find the
park’s undulations and rock formations anywhere else. The trails are
a perfect place for a hike past ponds, marshes, woodlands, and prairie. New
restrooms have been added at the covered picnic shelter. The park is host
to hundreds of bird, plant, and animal species, some unique to the area.
CENTENNIAL PARK Calling all skateboarders! Springfield’s newest
park is a must-see for you! That’s because in addition to its wide
open spaces, great for a quiet picnic if you’re headed west and away
from Springfield, Centennial Park is home to a skateboarders’ run,
dedicated in 2003. The smooth surface covers 10,000 square feet and is
packed with the curves, dips, and banks that will make your day. Take MacArthur onto Wabash and continue west past
White Oaks Mall, then start looking for Bunker Hill on your right. Look for
the Centennial Park sign on that corner, then take a right onto Bunker Hill
and keep going until you see the next sign and the parking lot.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL GARDEN
Lincoln Memorial Garden was designed in 1936 by the
great American landscape architect Jens Jensen. In 1992 it was added to the
National Register of Historic Places. Six miles of trails take you through
100 acres of native woodland on Lake Springfield’s northwest shore.
Each trail is dotted with benches etched with Lincoln quotes, and all
plants derive from the three states in which Lincoln lived —
Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana. A popular area when the weather begins to
warm is the grove of maple-syrup sugar bushes. Nearby are the
garden’s Walnut Grove and Ostermeier Prairie Center, a former farm
where once-cultivated fields have been restored to native grasses and
forbs. The garden is open daily, sunrise to sunset. Special weekend events are held throughout the year,
among them the Indian Summer Festival (second weekend of October) and the
Holiday Market (mid-November). The park also includes the Nature Center and Split
Rail Gift Shop, which offers crafts, books, and posters. The gift shop and
nature center are open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat. and 1-4 p.m. Sun. Lincoln Memorial Garden, 2301 E. Lake Drive,
217-529-1111, www.lmgnc.org. Admission is free, except during special
events. Take I-55 south to the Chatham/ East Lake Drive interchange (exit
88), then head east (left) for two miles on East Lake Drive.
LINCOLN PARK Though smaller than Washington Park, Lincoln Park has
more wide-open spaces for playing baseball and Frisbee-hurling. Lincoln
Park’s tennis courts are first-class, and the park also boasts a
horseshoe park and an 18-hole disk-golf course. Nelson Center, at the park,
is the only place in Springfield with two ice rinks and a swimming pool,
which features a thrilling water slide. Lincoln Park’s paths, pond,
shelters, playground, and proximity to Oak Ridge Cemetery make it a
convenient and fun spot for a family picnic. Take Sixth Street north from downtown or Fifth Street
south from the Illinois State Fairgrounds. From Oak Ridge, take Monument to
North Grand (left), and North Grand to Sixth Street (left). For information
on programs and events at the Nelson Center, call 217-753-2800.
WASHINGTON PARK
This, the city’s flagship park, is also
Springfield’s largest. The park’s main attraction is the Thomas
Rees Memorial Carillon, the world’s sixth-largest carillon. A
weeklong International Carillon Festival, held in June, brings in artists
from around the world and audiences around from the country. During the
summer, carillon concerts are held at 7 p.m. Wed. and 3 and 7 p.m. Sun.
During the fall, winter, and spring, concerts are held at noon and 3 p.m.
Sun. Tours of the carillon are offered noon-dusk Wed.-Sun. in the summer
and Fri.-Sun. in the winter, spring, and fall. Admission is $2 for adults
and $1.50 for students. Also located at the park: The Washington Park
Botanical Garden, which includes a 9,000-square-foot greenhouse,
conservatory, and gallery. Surrounding the conservatory is a variety of
gardens, including a 5,000-plant rose garden, the largest of its kind in
central Illinois; a scent-and-texture garden for the visually impaired; an
iris garden; a perennial border; the Betty Mood Smith Rockery; and
Roman-cultural and outdoor cactus gardens. Activities open to the public
are many, including the Daylily Show, starting June 24; the Prairie
Festival, Sept. 17-Oct. 8; the Chrysanthemum Festival, Oct. 34-Nov. 20; and
the Christmas Floral Display, Dec. 3-Jan. 2. The botanical garden is open
noon-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri. and noon-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. See
www.springfieldparks.org/garden. Washington Park is also home to ponds, picnic
shelters, playgrounds, tennis courts, nature trails, and bike and jogging
paths. As part of a three-phase renovation program, a 350-foot boardwalk
has been constructed along the lower lagoon and new equipment has been
installed at the playground adjacent to the picnic area.
This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2004.
