The Iroquois County State Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park that occupies 2480acre in northeastern Iroquois County, near the border with Indiana. The nearest municipality is Beaverville, Illinois, and the nearest exit on a limited-access highway is Exit 302 on Interstate 57 (Chebanse, Illinois).EcologyThe Iroquois County State Wildlife Area is a surviving remnant of the Great Kankakee Swamp, a 5,300 sq mi (14,000 km²) expanse of wetland that once drained the slow-flowing Kankakee River valley. The glacial melt episode that marked the conclusion of the Wisconsonian glaciation washed a fan of sand, silt, and sediments westward from Northwest Indiana into Northeastern Illinois, and this outwash plain, which remained damp or wet year-round, became the home of a significant quantity of habitat-specific wetland plants and insects.HistoryThe Kankakee Swamp wetlands were the home of many beaver and other fur-bearing mammals, which led to the nearby locality being incorporated as the municipality of Beaverville. The nearby towns of Chebanse and St. Anne pay tribute to the area's French-Canadian fur-trading heritage.During the great drainage of the Kankakee Swamp, starting in the late 19th century, ditches were dug all over eastern Iroquois County to drain the outwash plain. While most of the ditched land became fertile farmland, the sands of far-northeastern Iroquois County resisted profitable farming activity.
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