ing of another park -- Lake Le-Aqua-Na -- to the east 
in Stephenson County. Picnicking and camping are 
permitted at Apple River. 
Apple River Canyon State Park was acquired by 
the state in part through the persistent efforts of Dr. 
Herman Pepoon, a physician who preferred to teach 
high school biology, rather than practice medicine, 
and whose interest in nature doubtless developed 
during his youth, which was spent in the Apple River 
area. He visualized a much larger park (Pepoon 1920). 
Perhaps we can still hope that more land to the 
southwest and northwest can be obtained and more, 
if not all, of the canyon can be placed in public 
ownership. 
2. ILLINOIS BEACH STATE PARK 
Bordering Lake Michigan between Waukegan, 
Illinois, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, lies a sand and 
gravel beach that is superimposed upon glacial till; 
its western limit is the Glenwood beach ridge of 
glacial Lake Chicago. Many writers have referred to 
this area as “‘the Waukegan moorland,’’ but Gates 
(1912), who studied it in detail, called it the ‘‘Beach 
area.”’ 
Illinois Beach State Park occupies 1,555 acres 
of this sand and marsh terrace with dune ridges. The 
southern boundary of the park is approximately the 
middle of section 10, T. 45 N., R. 12 E. The eastern 
boundary is Lake Michigan, along which the park ex- 
tends northward for 3.5 miles, to the north line of 
section 26, T. 36 N., R. 12 E. The northern boundary 
follows the north line of sections 26 and 27 westward, 
almost to the railroad trackway in the area. The west- 
ern boundary is irregular. Part of it lies west of the 
trackway. Other parts, totaling 1.5 miles, coincide 
with the east side of the trackway. Still other parts 
lie east of the trackway, as much as 0.5 mile. 
Fig. 4.-- The mouth of Dead River in Illinois Beach 
State Park. The sand and gravel bar blocks the passage of 
water from the river into Lake Michigan. 
6 
The geologic history of the area is complex. It 
includes a glacial lake known as Lake Chicago in 
the Lake Michigan basin. The highest level of this 
lake, termed the Glenwood stage, was 640 feet above 
sea level. Subsequent stages, the Calumet and Tol- 
leston, were at levels respectively of 620 and 600 
feet above sea level. Beaches were developed at all 
of these levels. Continued lowering of the lake to 
the present level (580 feet, mean level) resulted in 
the accumulation of the broad sand terrace of beach 
and dune ridges. The ridges of sand that border Lake 
Michigan were formed by currents that moved south- 
ward, not quite parallel to the present shore. Wind 
has reworked some of the sand deposits, but no dunes 
of the magnitude of those on the east shore of Lake 
Michigan have been formed in the Beach area, be- 
cause few strong and sustained winds come from the 
east, the wind direction required for dune building in 
this locality. 
The plant cover of the Beach area includes de- 
ciduous forest, prairie, marsh, a man-made coniferous 
forest, and the aquatic vegetation of Dead River. 
The deciduous forest is represented on the dune 
tidges by the forest, in which black oak is dominant. 
White oak, bur oak, cottonwood, and quaking aspen 
also are present. The shmbs include lead plant, New 
Jersey tea, and poison ivy. Humus is not abundant 
in this forest. 
The dune prairie is the typical sand prairie, with 
such grasses as little bluestem, switchgrass, Indian 
grass, and Calamovilfa longifolia var. magna among 
the common species. In the sand prairie, especially 
in blowouts, as well as in the forest, the creeping 
juniper and bearberry are abundant. These two spe- 
cies help stabilize the sand. Wet prairie includes 
such grasses as prairie cordgrass, reed grass, and 
sedges of the genus Carex. Fringed gentians flower 
in some of the wet prairies. Cattails are very abun- 
dant in the marshland, where bulmshes also thrive. 
Dead River, a sluggish stream, drains part of 
this area. Its source is a few small lakes in the 
marshland, near the railroad trackway. The stream 
meanders northeastward, turns southward and south- 
eastward, makes an abrupt tum to the north and then 
to the east to enter Lake Michigan. The mouth of the 
river is often blocked by a bar, fig. 4. In the water of 
Dead River can be found pondweeds, water-milfoil, 
and waterweeds. Elsewhere along the stream can be 
seen yellow pond lily and white water lily, pickerel 
weed, and giant bur-reed. White buttercup and com- 
mon arrowhead also grow here. 
The man-made coniferous forest is unique in 
Illinois. About a century ago, Robert Douglass, a 
nurseryman, scattered seeds of various species of 
pines on the prairie-covered ridges south of the mouth 
of Dead River. The seeds germinated and the pines 
grew. Presently some species are thriving and seed- 
ing themselves. The Austrian pine is the most abun- 
dant of them, followed by Scotch pine, fig. 5. Several 
