Rock Springs Conservation Area is a 1,300 acre (5 km²) park located 4 miles (6.5 km) southwest of

Decatur, Illinois Decatur ( ) is the largest city in Macon County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

. Centering on the Rock Spring Nature Center, a small environmental-education museum and community center, it is the largest parcel of parkland, in terms of surface area, in Macon County. The conservation area and nature center are operated by the Macon County Conservation District. ''Rock Spring'' is a natural outflow of water from the sandstone bluffs on the south bank of the

Sangamon River The Sangamon River is a principal tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 in central Illinois in the United Sta ...

. The spring was a meeting point for local Native Americans. Around 1915 and 1916 a bottling plant bottled spring water for sale to local merchants. Only ruins of the building remain today. Nearby is ''Miller's Mill'', the site of a 19th-century

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

that ground local

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

into

cornmeal Maize meal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize. It is a common staple food and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but it is not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', Third Editi ...

. There is an informational kiosk on the trail overlooking the mill site which tells the history of the mill. The area surrounding the springs consists of Sangamon River

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s and low bluffs of marginal agricultural productivity. As the population of Decatur grew sharply in the early 20th century, large parcels of land alongside the Sangamon were condemned so that the metropolis could build a modern

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewerage, sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged fro ...

plant. More than two square miles of land around and downstream from the plant was redesignated as a nature center and buffer zone. Six miles (10 km) of nature trails provide access to the conservation area. Largely wooded, parts of the conservation area have been planted as restoration

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...

. The current Rock Springs Conservation Area and Nature Center are the products of this urban-planning initiative. The center is operated by the Macon County Conservation District. Rodney T

The nearest major highway is

Illinois Route 48 Illinois Route 48 (IL 48) is an north–south state highway with its southern terminus at Interstate 55 (I-55) and IL 127 in Raymond and its northern terminus at IL 54 east of Clinton. Route description IL 48 ...

, southwest of Decatur.

References

External links

Rock Springs Conservation Area & Nature Center
- official site {{Coord, 39.8245, -89.0128, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title Nature reserves in Illinois Protected areas of Macon County, Illinois Tourist attractions in Macon County, Illinois Nature centers in Illinois