Beall Woods State Park

Beall Woods State Park preserves one of Illinois’s rare old-growth hardwood forests along the Wabash River near Keensburg. The Beall family left this woodland largely untouched from the early 19th century into the 1960s, allowing a remnant of the former Eastern Woodlands ecosystem to survive while most old-growth timber in the Wabash Valley was cut away. After Laura Beall’s death, Illinois condemned the farm and forest for public use in 1965 after a fight with a lumber company, and created the park in 1966. Today it protects a nationally recognized forest, notable tree diversity, wildlife habitat, hiking trails, and an Important Bird Area designation.

Illinois · United States