Cities need parks. Parks and plazas define cities. New York’s Central Park, Chicago’s lakefront, Paris’ Jardin des Tuileries, Beijing’s Jingshan Park. They provide space to do, well, whatever it is people want to do as somewhat defined by the city’s urban design. Dance, walk, play soccer, play frisbee, skateboard, play chess, play checkers, drink, eat, laugh, theater, fly a small motorized plane, garden, whatever.
But on the periphery of cities, larger parks hopefully exist. State parks, national parks, a slice of nature. Certainly, not every city can have one if the nature doesn’t exist. Even flat Chicago has the Indiana Dunes not super far way. Hangzhou has the Xixi Wetlands, LA and New York have ample hikes within a couple hours if you’re willing, Croatia has its Plitvice National Park 2 hours from the capital, Cartagena has its Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park a boat ride away.
Rockford, Illinois has Rock Cut State Park within 15 minutes depending how far you are in the city itself. It’s in the Midwest, so we’re not talking the towering Rockies or even the mildly tall Appalachians. Nonetheless, glaciers scraped parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa leaving behind some elevation, the Great Lakes, and deciduous forests aplenty.
Pierce Lake forms the center of the park, with a three-mile hike that rings the lake being the most obvious. There is plenty of fishing and plenty who fish in this park, young and old alike, in small ponds and in the main lake. There is boating and camping and plenty of the typical stuff one can find in a relatively large state park.
Hiking trails meander off into the woods. You’re never going to get lost: go too far one way and you’ve met the lake, go to far the other and you’ve met the main roads bordering the park. I wouldn’t say, though, the trails are super clearly marked. There’s forks in the road and the trail markings never really indicate which is the trail highlighted at the trailhead map and which is the one that will lead to you Narnia. It’s not a horrible problem to get somewhat lost, and again you’ll never be “lost” for more than 5 minutes, but the trail markers simply suggest that, yes, the worn path you’re on is existentially a trail, but not that it’s the prairie trial supposedly.
Prairie Restoration
In Deer Park, IL, the Cuba Marsh provides wide trails for running and hiking, a few boardwalks over marshier lands and lovely post-ups for birders. It’s maintained by the county in an otherwise pretty standard suburb. One thing that caught my eye was the section with prairie restoration. I remembered it, and cross-referenced what I saw in Rock Cut State Park.
After walking around the lake and through some forest, the part of the park map that intrigued me most was this prairie. East Coast-looking forests surrounded me. How could there be a prairie?
So I drove to the sign and sure enough, head-height grasses extended 100 yards before meeting a tree line again.
I’m a sign guy. I see a placard on a building, a stone with a date, and informational marker and I’m in. The park informed that merely 1% of the prairie remains in Illinois. Natural fires and Native American-induced ones kept large forests away and helped endure the amber waves of grains we think of. However by the 1800s, as the Native Americans were removed from the lands and industrial farming took over, irrigation was laid under the soil and erosion destroyed the root structures of the grass, sometimes extending 15 feet deep. Years later, the natural prairies need to be actively restored or they won’t return.
The park system is helping to cut back the trees and return the grasses that once covered Illinois and much of the Midwest. I, for one, am a fan.
Importance of a Park
One cliched adage proves the importance of green space. You don’t know what you have til it’s gone. Normally used for loved ones, partners broken up, a dream job, station in life, etc. I’m using it here for urban parks, namely how people react when a city offers green space. Think of the collective response when a sports team wants to replace public space in city centers with a private coliseum.
Punctuation of space is important in a city. Plazas, strips of restaurants and bars, parks, monuments. They dot and carve space to functional units. Think of the drab design of typical American suburban sprawl. It’s samey. It’s impossible to remember distinct, discrete parts other than “my friends house.”
Urban parks provide that.
Additionally, parks (city, county, state, federal) outside the city create purpose for residents to leave. Beaches, forests, deserts, prairies. One can live in Chicago for years and not know the landscape of Illinois, which is a shame. It’s not all flat, at all. There are glacially formed regions with (some) elevation, beauty forged by the Mississippi, inspiring rock formations.
Rock Cut State Park forged a collective memory along with Rockford itself. In addition to a lovely camping trip at Apple River Canyon State Park and fun walks along the river in Dubuque, northwest Illinois (into Iowa), is a wonderful, ecologically different trip away from the rest of the grasslands and concrete jungles of Illinois.
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