PARK AND CEMETERY. 
214 
to one mile in width and contains about 9,000 acres. 
It is large enough to preserve the beautiful natural 
forests of the region and to provide parks and pleasure 
grounds for eight towns now along its banks and as 
many more in the future. There is space for country 
roads and bridle paths throughout its entire length, 
and for a trolley line, connecting the towns along the 
river with each other and with the city. 
At the southwest corner of this zone is recommended 
a great natural park of 7,000 acres extending from 
the Desplaines Valley across the heights and the Sag 
Valley into Palos. This tract should be kept in a 
natural state and an arboretum established. It is well- 
wooded, fairly watered, and is the only distinctly hilly 
section near the city. The acc]uisition of Calumet 
Lake with a tract of 3,000 acres around it is recom- 
mended at once before land values rise to a prohibitive 
price. It is the center of what is now one of the great- 
est manufacturing and industrial regions in the world. 
The total park area proposed for acquisition is 37,061 
acres, including 84 parks, divided among the four zones 
as follows: Zone one, 272 acres; zone three, 11,909; 
zone four, 24,880. 
The landscape architect’s report has been carefully 
prepared by Mr. Jens Jensen, who has made a study 
of the soil and vegetation of the tract for fifteen years. 
It is accompanied by about 60 photographic views 
showing the trees and interesting landscape features 
of the region. Generally speaking it is a great plain 
above which rise a few elevations varying from sand 
ridges to bluffs. The meadow scenery of the Skokee 
district changes to river scenery in the Desplaines Val- 
ley. This in turn takes on a hilly character in the Sag 
Valley and terminates in the lake scenery at Calumet. 
Concerning the trees, Mr. Jensen says that no 
species native to the region has become extinct, and one 
species not indigenous to the district is found in the 
common white willow. The vegetation of the entire 
area varies little although certain species are more pro- 
nounced in one locality than another. The red cedar, 
white pine, common and creeping juniper are char- 
acteristic only in the ravine and on the lake bluffs of 
the northern tract. 
With the exception of minor changes in the forest 
due to man’s intervention, the entire forest area con- 
sists of a mixture varying from soft maple, willow, 
swamp oak, ash, elm, cottonwood, linden, hackberry, 
red maple, alder, hawthorn, elder, dogwood, ninebark, 
black haw, wild grape vine, roses, etc., on the bottom 
or moist lands to oak, hard maple, hickory, butternut, 
walnut, mulberry, ironwood, hop hornbeam, juneberry, 
white ash, American bird cherry, wild red cherry, 
choke cherry, crab-apple, arrowwood, witch-hazel, 
hazel, sumach, honeysuckle, etc., on the higher level. 
The report is accompanied by several large maps, 
many drawings and tables of comparative statistics, 
and will form an invaluable guide to the future develop- 
ment of a Metropolitan Park System for Chicago. 
IMAP OF CHICAGO AND VICINITY, SHOWING PRESENT AND PROPOSED PARK SYSTEMS. 
