Good Natured in St. Charles: Opportunities plentiful to explore heart of Illinois

Here at Good Natured World Headquarters, our staff (of one) works hard to bring you cutting-edge nature news as we see it here in Kane County, Illinois. But every once in a while – make that a great while – wanderlust sets in and we hit the road to see what nature looks like in other places.

Such an occasion occurred a few weeks ago, when some good friends, aka the Nature Nerds, and I set forth on a mission to find an area in Illinois where Brood XIX 13-year cicadas and Brood XIII 17-year cicadas overlap. We had a good lead on a location, the Starhill Arboretum in Petersburg, and we found a couple days – June 19 and 20 – when seven Nerds were available to make the trip.

As luck would have it, my mom is from that exact area. She grew up in Atterberry, which I guess we could call a suburb of Petersburg, and graduated from Petersburg Harris Consolidated High School (Class of 1948, go Blue Jays!).

Naturally, a lot of family history came bubbling up as we drove the back roads of Menard County, a primarily agricultural area northwest of Springfield. I’m afraid the Nerds were subjected more than once to reminiscences about Grandma’s Concord grapes and her fabulous jelly, the field where I caught my first snake, the pond where I caught my first frog …

But, as we poked around the (cicada-less) scenery, we saw bits and pieces of a history everyone could relate to: sandy soil long ago deposited by receding glaciers; mountain mint and a Dichanthelium panic grass, found alongside a soybean field but serving as reminders of the prairie that once predominated; and a pocket woodland featuring a healthy growth of poison ivy around its perimeter, along with an understory of sassafras, fading spring wildflowers and bright green rattlesnake ferns.

More poison ivy prevented much exploration of the nearby Oakford State Conservation Area, but, from our vantage point alongside another bean field, we could see a floodplain forest, indicating our proximity to the Sangamon River. Another reminder of Illinois’ glacial past, this meandering stream wends its way throughout much of central Illinois before entering the Illinois River at Beardstown.

I don’t think I mentioned yet that even though we were visiting in the middle of June, the weather very much felt like August: hot and humid – conditions my Grandpa always called good growing weather. Although helpful for corn and soybeans, it made for seven thirsty Nerds. Luckily, we weren’t too far from the Hill Prairie Winery, a vineyard situated amid, appropriately enough, a restored prairie.

The next day, instead of touring Starhill Arboretum, we made our own fun chasing cicadas at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site, located just south of downtown Petersburg. Although not a location where the two cicada broods overlapped, the park and its reconstructed Lincoln-era village kept us engaged – and relatively shaded from the still-blazing sun – for a number of hours.

Our time in Petersburg, as so often is the case, was just too short. I would have liked to have learned more about the natural history of the area – especially the events that produced the features we saw: the sandy soil, the prairie remnants and the Sangamon, as well as the indigenous cultures that preceded what we saw at New Salem.

As luck would have it, our accommodations for this adventure actually sponsor a program to address these and several other nature-nerdy inquiries. Petersburg’s RiverBank Lodge offers what they call “field trips for grown-ups” or, more formally, the RiverBank Lodge Nature Tours, a two-day series of programs that include “Trees and History” and “Central Illinois Landscape History.”

The Lodge’s assistant manager, Maggie Halleck, was kind enough to share the details of these tours, which this year will take place in August. On Mondays, Aug. 19 and 26, Guy Sternberg of the Starhill Arboretum (yup, the place we didn’t make it to during our whirlwind jaunt) will lead a car caravan tour of significant tree sites at the Arboretum, as well as in the surrounding area.

Next, on Aug. 20 and 27, Michael Wiant, director emeritus at the Dickson Mounds State Museum, will lead participants on another tour of the past, this one taking people through 300 million years of Central Illinois geology, incorporating archaeology and anthropology – a history that includes 12,000+ years of Native American cultures.

The per-person fee for these learning adventures is $125, which includes lunch and beverages, as well as a $20 dinner voucher and a 25% discount on RiverBank lodging. Maggie would be glad to offer more information, and can be reached at 217-652-8827.

I’m checking my calendar now to see which dates work best. Hope to see you there!

• Pam Otto is the outreach ambassador for the St. Charles Park District. She can be reached at potto@stcparks.org.