Fall 1997

Camp offers educational nature programs and features a 100,000-year-old canyon

Cook County, Illinois

Since 1952, the Cook County Forest Preserve District has operated one of its six nature centers in a farm house on the edge of the Sag Valley. It includes a 12-acre dedicated Nature Preserve, known as Camp Sagawau.

Located about 35 minutes from downtown Chicago, the camp functions throughout the year as an environmental education facility, offering a variety of seasonal programs to the public. Camp Sagawau is a protected site, due to the unusual number of rare and threatened species in need of preservation found here. Visitors are not allowed to take self-guided hikes for this reason, but there is no shortage of opportunities to get out and explore the area. The nature center offers more than 70 different naturalist-led nature education programs throughout the year.

Camp Sagawau’s primary attraction is a canyon estimated to be 100,000 years old. The only exposed canyon of its kind in Cook County, it has been preserved so that it remains much as it has been since the retreat of the glacier. Formed of the region’s bedrock dolomite limestone, the canyon provides a distinctive environment for wildlife. Visitors can expect to see unusual and uncommon plants, including bublet fern, purple cliff brake, hairy rock cress, and walking fern, and may catch a glimpse of animals such as long-tailed weasels and mink. Guided tours of the canyon are offered every Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. from September 27 though October 26.

The canyon is not the only place at Camp Sagawau where wildlife can be studied and enjoyed. Camp Sagawau is home to five acres of tallgrass prairie, one of the earliest prairie restorations in the area. Prairie walks give visitors an opportunity to see more than 150 species of prairie grasses and wildflowers. During the fall months, prairie asters, goldenrod, and gentians are all in bloom.

Events planned for fall at the nature center include programs about the history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, winter bird feeding, Illinois endangered species, Native American tools, wild bird migration, the fall night sky, solar astronomy and a fall tree painting workshop, led by the Forest Preserve District’s nationally acclaimed illustrator, Nancy Halliday.

Most programs are free and appropriate for families and participants of all ages. For more information, or to register for any of Camp Sagawau’s fall programs, call (630) 257-2045 Monday though Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

— M. Kathleen Pratt