Ramsey Lake State Recreation Area in Illinois near Ramsey is a one thousand nine hundred eighty-acre state park centered on Ramsey Lake, a forty-acre artificial reservoir begun in nineteen forty-seven and named for Ramsey Creek. Once known as the Old Fox Chase Grounds, the area includes the former Fox Hunt Hollow, named for annual hunts held by the Central Illinois Foxhunter's Association. The park is managed for outdoor recreation, especially boating, fishing, hunting, and trails, and it also contains ponds and wetlands managed for amphibians. Its associated Ramsey Railroad Prairie preserves a rare prairie remnant on former Illinois Central Railroad land later dedicated as an Illinois Natural Area in nineteen ninety-seven.