depel eae UD a BIOUN? B20 Tele berorN 7 
A Visit to Valentine Park 
By RAYMOND MOSTEK 
AT THE DECATUR MEETING of the Society this spring, President Paul Down- 
ing said that there are hundreds of people, even thousands, who are laboring 
to make our state a greater haven for wildlife. At the banquet that evening, 
we met two of those people — Mr. and Mrs. Jo Valentine of Greenfield, in 
Greene county. Later we accepted an invitation to visit their 160-acre farm, 
while on our way to visit Pere Marquette State Park after the meeting on 
Sunday. We traveled over Highway 48, one of the best in the state because 
it has less billboards and more picnic tables than any other highway we’ve 
seen in Illinois. 
We arrived in the late afternoon and were whisked away in their station 
wagon to visit surprising Valentine Park, a 40-acre tract about 2% miles 
west of Greenfield. A rustic fence greets the visitor at the entrance and 
there is plenty of space outside for parking cars. A large lake, apparently 
fed by spring's, has been obtained by damming’ a small creek. Here, hundreds 
of grateful fishermen find bass, bluegills and crappie. The water has been 
host to Canada geese, ducks, plovers, sandpipers and redwinged blackbirds. 
As we tramped through the forest of hickory, elm, cedar and maple, we 
noted blue jays, flickers, hairy woodpeckers, a brown thrasher and several 
warblers. When we approached the gravel road, we heard the delightful 
call of the bob-white. 
At one point, we examined a wooden bridge which arched over a ravine. 
Jo Valentine had built the bridge himself, arranging the timbers in place 
with the aid of his tractor. The State of Illinois has cooperated by provid- 
ing 14 large picnic tables, trash cans, and a direction sign on the highway 
in town. The facilities also included two latrines, a fireplace, a heap of wood 
and old lumber, a registration book, and a coin box to turn on the electric 
lights. To add a final touch, a large, narrow box nailed to a tall pole con- 
tained a huge hand saw for use by picnickers to cut the old lumber for 
their campfires. Hundreds of people from all over the state visit the park. 
Boy Scouts from as far away as East St. Louis have used the area for 
a week-end camping rendezvous. 
There are two surprising features about this small park — one, that it 
exists at all. Mr. Valentine, a retired rural postman, is a member of the 
Illinois Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs and a practicing farmer who 
believes in modern soil conservation measures, No charge is made for the 
use of the park, and indeed its maintenance costs him a fair share of funds. 
In a state which is notably lacking in roadside parks and county parks, the 
Valentine tract is a welcome sight. In the Greater Metropolitan Chicago 
area, especially, our state has failed to provide enough state parks to ac- 
commodate the huge week-end crowds. Illinois Beach State Park is a perfect 
example — it is much too small, and the pressures on its “Nature Area” 
are enormous. 
The second surprising feature about Valentine Park is the lack of 
vandalism, The park is always open, but there is no damage to the tables, 
