Summer 2001

The birthplace of the prairie preservation movement, this small but diverse preserve houses its visitor and volunteer center in an old caboose

Cook County, Illinois

When the wind is right, the smell of a factory baking bread wafts towards visitors approaching Santa Fe Prairie. Remarkably, one of the smallest, rarest, and highest-quality remnants of our original Midwestern landscape, Santa Fe Prairie lies on the edge of an industrial park wedged between a rail yard and the Des Plaines Diversion Channel. Nevertheless, what makes Santa Fe Prairie truly unique is that it has been called the birthplace of the prairie preservation movement.

Santa Fe Prairie sits atop a gravel terrace that formed at the northwestern shore of ancient Mount Forest Island as glacial Lake Chicago drained from the Des Plaines valley more than 8,000 years ago. This "river bottom prairie" remained virtually untouched until the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway acquired it in 1886. They set the parcel aside for future use and for about 75 years it remained protected, benignly neglected.

When botanist Floyd Swink conducted the first botanical survey in 1946, the Prairie was approximately 40 to 50 pristine acres. On July 6th, 1959, biochemist Robert Betz visited the site with Swink. "The Santa Fe Prairie was the first real prairie I’d seen, and the plant variety astounded me," Betz said. "That first visit with Floyd Swink made me decide to dedicate the next 35 years of my life to prairies."

In the late 1960s, Betz learned of the railway’s plans to destroy the prairie to develop an industrial park. He began a decades-long campaign to save it. By 1976, when the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory described the prairie as including "Grade A" dry-mesic and mesic gravel prairie, filling by the railroad to raise the grade above floods had shrunk the prairie to 11 acres.

In July of 1997, after a decade of persistent persuasion, Stan Johnson, chairman of the I&M Canal Civic Center Authority, convinced the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway to donate the prairie to the Authority, which now owns and manages it. The Railway also donated a caboose, which serves as a visitor and volunteer center. After 35 years of nearly constant efforts by many people and organizations, 10.84 acres of the original Santa Fe Prairie was designated as an Illinois Nature Preserve on October 3, 1997.

The moist calcareous (calcium-rich) soils and gravelly, well-drained portions of the prairie together host more than 250 native plant species. In summer, the site is a kaleidoscopic mosaic of color. Dry species, such as pale purple coneflower and porcupine grass, may be found here in relatively close proximity to plants that prefer moist conditions, including Virginia wild rye and small skullcap. Variations in soil moisture support far greater plant diversity than would generally be expected of a site its size.

There are no hiking trails at Santa Fe Prairie, but the proposed Centennial Trail will pass on the road between the site and the Des Plaines River. The River is a dedicated canoe trail developed by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, and there is an informal canoe landing there.

The visitor center/caboose is open between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekends. Interpretive signage, steel silhouettes of Betz and Swink, and a viewing deck alongside the caboose tell the prairie’s story to visitors. Volunteer workdays are every Saturday throughout the year. Contact stewards Greg Starr and Karen Stasky at (708) 598-6139. For a virtual tour, see civiccenterauthority.org.

– Gary Mechanic