OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 97 



Just what the answer is to this unusual acrobatic tendency 

 of the Salt Creek, none has been able to furnish but the neigh- 

 boring country is as distinctively individual. It is a rolling, 

 then sweeping, country that furnishes forestry in every phase 

 of growth. 



As might be expected from territory put up in such original 

 form by Nature, we also find here what is probably the finest 

 natural golf course in the country. And what is most extra- 

 ordinary there has at many places been provided a close ap- 

 proach to natural putting greens. 



"Here is a golf course the like of which has cost many golf 

 clubs thousands upon thousands of dollars and in many respects 

 I consider it superior to anything in existence", is the report on 

 the tract received from golf links engineers. 



"In our opinion the expenditure of a few hundred dollars 

 would be the means of throwing open a course to the public", 

 the report continued. "Such a public course set down in the very 

 midst of a primeval forest would be of incalculable value to the 

 community." 



Included in this preserve is the widely known McCormick 

 tract which embraces two picnic groves that have been visited 

 by hundreds of thousands every year in the past. With develop- 

 ment as a part of the Forest Preserve District this domain is 

 destined to treble its popularity. 



Rustic shelters are springing up in every section of the vast 

 forest. With the construction of numerous footbridges cross- 

 ing the creek the District plans to add to the public convenience 

 in traversing the ground. Improved springs are being estab- 

 lished everywhere. 



Shabbona Valley might well be the name of this incom- 

 parable tract for history tells us how that old Indian chief, 

 later to come into such great favor with the white settlers 

 about Chicago, found here a beauty spot that he placed above 

 everything else in the "land of the Illinois." 



It is said that Shabbona and his Pottowatomie braves on 

 their travels to the post at the mouth of the "Checaugau River" 

 always made a long and arduous portage through the present 

 DuPage County territory for the sole purpose of travelling 

 through the game-infested Salt Creek valley. 



One of the distinctive features of the Salt Creek woods is 

 the network of beaten paths that extends from one end to the 

 other. Just how these trails were started no one seems to know 

 but it is perfectly obvious that they are laid with definite ob- 



