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THE PEACOCK PRAIRIE PRESERVATION PROJECT 
By Mrs. Franklin T. Popelka 
Definition of a virgin prairie 
A virgin prairie is a community of perennial grassland plants and flowers al- 
ways found together undisturbed by human influences. A climax prairie is, of 
course, virgin; it is a biological community that has evolved naturally for 
thousands of years. 
Scientific value 
Before the coming of white men in great numbers, most of the Chicago area 
and Illinois was a virgin prairie. For this reason, Illinois is known as the 
Prairie State. Now virgin black-soil prairies are almost non-existent in Illi- 
nois. Of the thousands of acres of prairie which originally dominated the 
Chicago area, only the several acres of Peacock Prairie remain. This particu- 
lar climax prairie has been recognized for many years for its high quality. 
In 1929, R. D. Paintin, a graduate of Northwestern University, chose this 
prairie for writing a science paper called ‘‘The Morphology and Nature of a 
prairie in Cook County, ”’ Hlinois Academy of Science, Vol. #21. At that time 
the prairie was ten acres. Outstanding scientists of the Chicago area value 
this prairie: Dr. Orlando Park, Entomologist, Northwestern University, has 
written three papers concerning it; Dr. W. J. Beecher, Director, Chicago 
Academy of Sciences, has made statements to the press about it; Dr. Robert 
F. Betz, Professor of Biology, Illinois Teachers College North, now working 
under a National Science Foundation grant to restore nearly-extinct prairie 
plants, rates this prairie worthy of preservation; so does Ray Schulenberg, 
Curator of Native Plants (the man in charge of creating the beautiful, though 
synthetic, prairie at the Arboretum), and so does Floyd A. Swink, Taxonomist, 
both of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, 
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History 
The land was acquired from the U.S. Government in the 1840’s by a Mr. 
John Long, who lived and farmed here; it remained in the Long family for 
some time, and a Mrs. Homer Long of Glenview now possesses the government 
patent obtained when the land was acquired at $1.25 an acre. Mr. Raymond 
Bartling of Glenview, an alert man in his 70’s, told me that he remembers his 
father pointing out to him over 60 years ago this area of virgin prairie, which 
was then 30 to 40 acres. He remembers it by the large dock leaves that grow 
there. When R. D. Paintin wrote her science paper, a Mr. Peacock owned the 
land; thus the name of the prairie. Arrowheads have been found there and in 
the vicinity. What is now Milwaukee Avenue was apparently an Indian trail 
and later a stage coach route that led to Wheeling and north to Milwaukee 
and Green Bay. The old stage coach inn still stands at 611 Milwaukee Avenue, 
north of Peacock Prairie. 
