In 1925, the Forest Preserve District purchased its first 75 acres at Waterfall Glen, the Signal Hill and Rocky Glen areas. Long before Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet paddled the American Indians were living along the surrounding limestone bluffs, including today's Signal Hill, which served as a communications vantage point.īy the late 1800s, though, the Ward Brothers’ mill was turning out lumber on Sawmill Creek, and Edwin Walker's three quarries were yielding tons of quality limestone for projects like the landmark Chicago Avenue Water Tower and Pumping Station. ![]() Ephemeral ponds make the savanna an essential habitat for amphibians such as salamanders and frogs. ![]() With Waterfall Glen being a wooded area having older trees, birds like pileated woodpeckers, scarlet tanagers, ovenbirds, wood thrushes, broad-winged hawks, and barred owls, are attracted to the area and some species breed there. Individual black and white oaks, shagbark and bitternut hickories, and black walnuts range from 180- to 215-years-old. Waterfall Glen is one of highest ranked conservation areas in the county, it contains 422 native plant species, including one state threatened and 36 of special concern. Waterfall Glen's 773-acre Bluff Savanna, which roughly covers the southern part of the preserve between Argonne National Laboratory and the Des Plaines River. There are over 300 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles and another 300 of invertebrates use the forest preserve either year-round or during their migrations. Waterfall Glen's prairies, savannas, and oak-maple woodlands contain 740 native plant species, 75 percent of all the plants known to grow naturally in DuPage County. The 2,492-acre Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Darien is an ecological parcel of open space within the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. Patrick Cemetery nestled deep in the preserve. Hikers can also make the interior trip to St. ![]() It is also home to a popular model airplane field, located in the southwest section of the forest preserve. It completely surrounds Argonne National Laboratory. Rocky Glen Falls, the largest waterfall in the preserve, is actually a natural dam in the valley glen. It is named for several waterfalls on Sawmill Creek as it empties into the Des Plaines River. Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve is a forest preserve in southern DuPage County, Illinois between the towns of Darien and Lemont.
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