Coffeen Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area in central Illinois is a 297-acre public landscape centered on a reservoir that shifted from industrial use to recreation and habitat. A 75-foot earthen dam built in 1963 on a branch of the East Fork of Shoal Creek created the lake, which filled by 1966 to supply cooling water for the coal-fired Coffeen Power Station. Opened as a fish and wildlife site in 1986, it became chiefly devoted to public use and habitat after the plant closed in 2019. The area’s Southern Till Plain setting supports oak-hickory forest and diverse wildlife around water, prairie, and wetland remnants.