peeve ere BO Neb Uk Ey ielN 15 
The Joliet Arboretum 


Photo ky L. H. Hyde 
Between park and school authorities the City of Joliet con- 
trols about 840 acres of park land, all a game and bird pre- 
serve, well policed. In nearly every instance a school build- 
ing has at least a city block for a playground. One has 25 
acres, another sixteen, another ten, another seven. 
The Joliet park district covering more acreage than the 
city itself beginning with small playgrounds from three to 
seven acres each, has in the West Park forty acres in the hills 
well covered with native timber, a restful place for the weary. 
It has much natural beauty and is a favorite with the children. 
Here is the beginning of a greenhouse system with about 300 
species of cacti and other attractive desert plants. The col- 
lections of native violets and ferns are also in this park. There 
is some good planting here in shrubbery but no formal decor- 
ative features—not enought to speak of. 
The pride of Joliet lies along Hickory Creek east of the 
city, paralleled by the main line of the Rock Island railway. 
The stream in early days was called a river and still is so large 
and clean that the name should be continued. In the begin- 
ning forty acres were purchased in the hills nearest the city 
and decorated with formal planting and playground features. 
The late Harlow N. Higinbotham while director of the World’s 
Columbian Fair, inspired by the native shrubs and plants so 
generously used for the Wooded Island and border planting 
of that enterprise, perhaps was inspired too, to collect the 
native trees and plants for his own birth place, the early Hig- 
