Southernmost Illinois' best-kept secret
|
|
Pamela Selbert
|
MotorHome, June 2008
|
|
|
When my husband, Guy, and I discovered the Cache River wetlands in "southernmost" Illinois a few years ago, we guessed it had to be the state's best-kept secret. We live in neighboring Missouri but had never heard of it. At the time we thought we'd made a wrong turn into the Deep South.
The Illinois we knew was wide-open flatland and seemingly endless miles of corn and bean fields that before the settlers arrived was carpeted with tall, rough grasses and wildflowers, prompting the nickname "Prairie State." This was land a glacier scoured and made rich some 20,000 years ago.
But the glacier stopped short of the state's southern tip, which today pokes into the Ohio River near its confluence with the Mississippi like a pair of fat fingers. And what's there, where four "physiographic regions" come together -- and north meets south and east meets west -- is a magnificent swampland where shallow, green-crusted water is statued with tupelo and ancient cypress trees, many of them giants that have stood there nearly 1,000 years.
Until recently most of what we'd seen of the swamp was in photos. But after talking with Carol Hoffman, sales manager of the Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau, and learning about the annual Birding Fest in April that draws more than 1,000 enthusiasts from around the country, we decided it was time to see the wetlands for ourselves.
Hoffman noted that 203 bird species had been recorded at the event. But she was quick to add that although the Birding Fest is popular, any time of year is a good time to visit and see birds (and more).
We visited in June, and for three marvelous days enjoyed the wetlands' many offerings. We recommend the Henry N. Barkhausen Cache River Wetlands Center, where a 12-minute film and dozens of exhibits in 2,000 square feet of exhibit space explain geologic and human history. The story begins with the end of the last ice age when the melting glacier flooded the Ohio River Valley, pushing the river south to its present location.
Other exhibits at the center explain efforts made over the last few decades to restore the wetlands, which once spanned more than 250,000 acres. The Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture Partnership, formed in 1991 and made up of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, is working to protect and restore 60,000 acres along 50 miles of the river. Thus far nearly 35,000 acres have been protected.
Once considered worthless, the Lower Cache River Swamp was named a National Natural Landmark in 1980, and designation in 1994 as a "Wetland of International Importance" put the entire swamp in the same ecological league as the Okefenokee Swamp and the Everglades.
The 1/3-mile-long Egret Slough Trail, behind the center, winds past a small pond filled with cattails and blue pickerelweed, and around a restored prairie thick with Queen Anne's lace, purple blazing star, black-eyed Susans and milkweed with delicately fragrant blooms. Placards note that 105 bird species are "associated" with the wetlands; that most of Illinois' amphibians, reptiles and mammals use them; and nearly half of the state's plants are wetland species.
Eager to see the swamp from a canoe, we made arrangements with Rick Reichert of Peddles and Paddles in Vienna, who leads guided trips on the Lower Cache River. Before we boarded our canoes, Reichert handed us life preservers "because insurance demands it," but noted that the river, once 6-8 feet deep, has been heavily silted and is currently only about 3 feet deep.
As the canoes plowed furrows through thick lime-colored duckweed and water meal, Reichert explained what we were seeing in this surreal swamp world, where even the air is green. Stately cypress trees with bases fanned like gored skirts rub shoulders with similar-sized tupelo. He explained that although the cypress is coniferous, its needles turn brown and drop in the fall, hence the name "bald cypress," while the deciduous tupelo, a gum, grows large "ovate" leaves.
Illinois' champion bald cypress, a majestic 1,000-year-old tree, was along our route; its 35-foot-wide "crown" towers 73 feet over the water, and its base is more than 34 feet wide. At the far end of our 6-mile trip was Eagle Pond, where we paddled to another landmark -- an 875-year-old cypress with 209 knees of varying heights. Reichert said the knees, which sprout from the water like clusters of gnomes, may provide stability for the trees that "never fall over."
Birds are everywhere: egrets and herons standing in the shallows fishing; vultures, a bald eagle and red-tail hawks cruising overhead; and a host of woodpeckers flitting among the trees. Hundreds of warblers jewel the trees here in spring, Reichert noted, but most are just passing through. This day, though, we saw several bright-hued prothonotary warblers. The swamp is similarly loaded with fish, including blue gill, channel cat, bass, crappie and gar.
Four hours in the canoes may have been the highlight of our southernmost Illinois visit, but we also enjoyed other treks into the swamp on foot, following boardwalks and hiking trails such as the 1-mile-long Swamp Trail along the Lower Cache River and the Section 8 Woods Nature Preserve just south of the Wetland Center, where a 465-foot boardwalk funnels visitors through a dim forest of oak, tupelo and cypress.
But the most rewarding hike is to Heron Pond, a place so surreal it could have been dreamed up by Dr. Seuss. A floating boardwalk takes you several hundred feet into the swamp where hundreds of enormous cypress trees rise like columns in a Gothic cathedral from the still, green water. There are no sounds other than infrequent bird calls and the grunting croak of a bullfrog.
Biking is another popular activity in the area, not in the swamp but on 45-mile-long Tunnel Hill State Trail -- a "rails to trails" project that follows the old Vincennes and Cairo railroad bed beginning at Karnak and running northeast to Harrisburg. A 2 1/2-mile spur on the old Chicago and Eastern Illinois railroad bed connects the bike trail to the walking trail at the Wetlands Center. (Numerous parking areas are provided along the trail, which for the most part follows U.S. Highway 45.)
As usual our time ran out too soon, as there is much more in Southernmost Illinois we wanted to see. But that's OK because we're already planning our next visit.
To read more articles like this,
subscribe to MotorHome magazine today!
|
|
|
|
Photos: Guy Selbert
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Biking the Tunnel Hill State Trail, a 45-mile "rails to trails" project that follows old railroad beds.
|
|
|
|
(click on images to enlarge)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Super Town, Super Museum
If visiting the Cache River Wetlands, make a quick side trip to Metropolis, Ill., aka Home of Superman. Metropolis, just a short drive southeast of the wetlands near the Illinois-Kentucky state line, offers several sites for tourists but the most interesting is the Super Museum. Its collection spans 60 years and honors "the most famous hero of all time."
The museum, located in Superman Square across the street from the statue of the Man of Steel, contains more than 20,000 items relating to the 60-plus-year Superman saga, from comic books to the TV show Lois and Clark.
For more information, call (618) 524-5518, or visit www.supermuseum.weebly.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
Super Museum
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
