Beall Woods State Park
Beall Woods State Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
Map of the U.S. state of Illinois showing the location of Beall Woods State Park | |
Location | Wabash County, Illinois, USA |
Nearest city | Keensburg, Illinois |
Coordinates | 38°21′31″N 87°49′30″W / 38.35861°N 87.82500°W |
Area | 635 acres (257 ha) |
Established | 1966 |
Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
Official website |
Beall Woods State Park is an
Forest of the Wabash
The Forest of the Wabash Natural Area within Beall Woods State Park contains trees from 64 separate species. Foresters have counted more than 300 climax trees with trunks of greater than 30 inches (76 cm) diameter at breast i.e. 40 inches (1 m) high. Some of the trees in the Forest of the Wabash are more than 120 feet (37 m) tall.
Trees of note include the
The Forest of the Wabash was patented by the federal government to the Beall family in the early 19th century, and was owned by them as an undisturbed woodlot until the 1960s. Meanwhile, almost all of the other old-growth trees in the Wabash Valley were cut down to harvest fine hardwoods, cut timber, or even for firewood. Upon the death of Laura Beall, the last private-sector guardian of the Forest of the Wabash, and after a fight with a lumber company, in 1965 the State of Illinois condemned the Beall farm and forest for public use.
In 2007, Beall Woods State Park was designated as an Important Bird Area of Illinois.[1]
References
- ^ "Illinois Important Bird Areas". Chicago Wilderness. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
- USGS. "United States Geological Survey Topographic Map, Keensburg (IL,IN) Quad". TopoQuest. Retrieved June 29, 2008.