etter er OuUN i 70 UT Belt N 29 
\ city hick 
inds beauty 
n own state. 
yy JACK MABLEY 
Nhen city people escape from the 
ity, they want to get away from 
1oise and congestion and pressure 
nd dirty air and water. Mostly 
hey seek peace and quiet. 
Tens of thousands of Chicagoans 
vile into their campers and trailers 
nd head for the dunes parks on 
sake Michigan, to Starved Rock, 
ip to Lake Geneva or the Dells, 
here to rub shoulders, fenders and 
lot breaths with thousands of 
ellow Chicagoans. 
They are 2 or 3 hours from the 
ity. 
Now take southern Illinois, 5 
r 6 hours from Chicago. We (wife 
md I) are here on a week day in 
he heart of the summer vacation 
eason. We walked thru the spec- 
acular Giant City rock forma- 
ions, and in one hour encountered 
iot another human being. 
At the beautiful Dixon Springs 
tate Park there were only two 
eople in the swimming pool at 
-oclock on a miserably hot night. 
In the Ferne Clyffe State Park, 
iundreds of acres of lush, rolling, 
inspoiled beauty, we ate breakfast 
n our motorhome, and driving thru 
he miles of wooded roads we saw 
nly one other camper. 
There were two cars parked in 
ront of the inn at Giant City Park. 
‘he view from the front lawn and 
vindows of the inn west across the 
olling land of the Little Ozarks is 
S spectacular as can be found in 
he midwest. 
I am a city hick who has lived 
in Chicago nearly 40 years and 
never got south of Springfield until 
now. What a revelation it is! Don- 
ald Culross Peattie, the naturalist, 
wrote in the New York Times that 
Illinois is the most beautiful state 
of the (then) 48, and down here you 
see his reasons. 
When Interstate 57 is finished in 
a couple of years Chicagoans will 
flock down here. 
It is vast. It is unspoiled. The 
state and federal governments have 
moved to preserve the natural 
beauty, and create huge camping, 
fishing and recreational areas. 
The countryside doesn’t have the 
honky tonk blight so common in 
tourist areas, and if the county and 
municipal office holders are smart, 
they'll keep the zoning tight and 
prevent the deterioration brought 
by the fast buck operators. 
It is fun just bumming around 
down here. We had been in Mam- 
moth Cave, Ky., and incidentally, 
if the United States ran the rest 
of its operations as well as it runs 
Mammoth Cave National Park, 
we'd be in a lot better shape than 
we are. 
We bypassed the heavy traffic 
highways and took Kentucky 91 
into Illinois. This means a ride 
across the Ohio River on a little 
auto ferry. Why rush? 
The ferry deposits you at Cave 
In Rock. We shared the whole state 
park with two other couples. 
Then down the river roads to 
Dam 10 on the Ohio River, and 
two hours eating and watching the 
big river boats go thru the locks. 
Stops in Ferne Clyffe and Dixon 
Springs parks on the way to Crab 
