Midewin's history

When New Yorker Eliza Steele journeyed through Illinois in the summer of 1840, she was delighted to come across the lush, vast prairies of Illinois. Enchanted by the sublime beauty of the variegated grassland, she noted in her journal the wonder she experienced as thousands of acres of undulating grasslands stretched around her.

Since then, intrusive human activity in the region has caused all but a tiny fraction of the Illinois Prairie to vanish. These picturesque grasslands have supported a multitude of plants, wildlife and humans for centuries. But recent human activity, including the U.S. Army’s production of TNT at the site that is now Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, endangered the delicate prairie-wetland ecosystem.

Natural History of the Prairie

Since their origin, about 7 million years ago, these extensive grasslands have undergone much change and have supported a wide variety of life. Home to mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, horses, rhinoceros, bison, antelope and other animals, the region was covered by deciduous forests following the Ice Age. A shift in climate to warmer, drier conditions about 8,700 years ago, and the occurrence of fire due to lightning or human activity resulted in prairie and savanna replacing deciduous forests. Periodic droughts and fires set by the inhabitants helped stabilize the grassland.¹

Cultural History of the Prairie

Early inhabitants of this region 12,000 years ago lived in small, highly mobile groups as hunters and gatherers. The warming of the climate encouraged agriculture, and the 12 nations of the Illiniwek —as well as from the Potawatomi, Sauk, Fox, Kickapoo, and other tribes — established semi-permanent agricultural villages.

The earliest known accounts of Europeans in Illinois are from the voyages of Louis Joliet and Father Marquette in 1673 up the Illinois River and into the Great Lakes.

By the 1800s, increasing numbers of European and American settlers entered southern Illinois, making their way north towards the Great Lakes. As the number of European settlers increased, conflict worsened between the European settlers and Native Americans, which led to the removal of Native Americans from Illinois by 1832. The construction of the I&M Canal in 1848 ushered in the Homestead Period and Euro-American groups settled in the region around the Midewin site.²

Joliet Army Ammunition Plant/Joliet Arsenal

In 1940, the federal government authorized the construction of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant at the Midewin site. Constructed to meet the U.S. military’s demand for explosives and ammunition during World War II, the Joliet Plant was the most sophisticated munitions plant in the world. At its peak production, the plant employed over 10,000 people and loaded over 900 million bombs, shells, mines, detonators, fuses, and boosters, while setting a national record for producing over 1 billion pounds of TNT. The water in Grant Creek, which runs through the site, at that time flowed red.

By the late 1970s, operations at this site had ceased. In 1996, Congress established Midewin as the first designated national tallgrass prairie, turning over control of the property to the U.S. Forest Service.

Although production of TNT and other munitions stopped years ago, the chemicals involved in the production process still contaminate the soil at the site of production. Restoration at Midewin is the nation’s largest effort to reverse that prairie destruction by restoring over 18,000 acres of natural area which may take 50 to 100 years. Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie has been dubbed “the nation’s first national park for the 21st century” in recognition of the tremendous time and energy that will go into this nationally-significant restoration effort.

The Initiative's Involvement

In order to restore the prairie to its full glory, a sustainable balance between human activity and natural resources has to be established. The subsequent increase in human population and activity in the area has put great demands on the prairie ecosystem, threatening its very existence.

Since 1997, TWI has partnered with the U.S. Forest Service to create a private-public partnership to help restore the nearly 20,000 acres at the Midewin site. In 2001, the first two on-the-ground restoration efforts at Midewin commenced at the Blodgett Road site and South Patrol Road site. Midewin now is becoming home to a biologically rich tapestry of native species, thanks to the combined efforts of TWI and its partner organization. Threatened and endangered species can thrive in these restored habitats.

In 2006, TWI focused on restoring 150 acres of rare microenvironment at the Blodgett Road restoration site called dolomitic wetland-prairie. The natural conditions that define this ecosystem are globally very rare: a thin layer of topsoil atop calcareous bedrock, and a diversity of plant life specifically adapted to these conditions.

In 2007, the Forest Service awarded the Wetlands Initiative its national Habitat Conservation Award for TWI’s successful 10-year partnership.

In 2008, TWI and its partners began to explore ways to re-introduce the federally-threatened eastern prairie fringed orchid.

In 2009, TWI completed a two-year effort with the Forest Service to restore the Lower Drummond Restoration Project and began work at the Grant Creek Restoration Area.

In 2012, TWI is on track to complete the 470-acre Grant Creek Restoration Project, its fifth restoration effort in partnership with the Forest Service at Midewin.

The Wetlands Initiative has raised more than $2.5 million for restoration at Midewin, in addition to providing technical expertise, and has restored more than 1,500 acres to date.

References:

¹Dr. Roger C. Anderson, Department of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University

²U.S. Department of Agriculture: http://www.fs.usda.gov