Prophetstown State Recreation Area preserves the site of an early 19th-century Native American village founded by Ho-Chunk chief Wabokieshiek, or White Cloud, along the Sauk Trail on the Rock River in northwestern Illinois. The settlement attracted Native people from several tribes resisting removal west of the Mississippi as white settlement spread, making it a strategic target in the Black Hawk War. Although the village was abandoned before Illinois militia arrived, General Samuel Whiteside ordered it burned on May 10, 1832. The later town of Prophetstown took its name from White Cloud’s settlement. The state park was established in 1947 and dedicated in 1953.