Glacial Park, Ringwood, Illinois
McHenry County History Glacial Park Kames Wetlands Nippersink Creek
Recent History
McHenry County, Illinois has a rich history both
relatively recent and geologically recent. In 1837, under the command of
General Henry McLean, a surveyor named A.S. Barnum laid out a village at the
site of a small settlement on the east bank of the Fox River. As an honor
to General McLean, a leader in the fight against Chief Blackhawk in the Blackhawk
War, Barnum called the village McHenry. At the time, only a hotel and
tavern were incorporated in the settlement. In the next year or so, a
county was carved out of northern Cook County; 
it
was named McHenry County. Between 1838 and 1839, the county was divided
in half, creating Lake County to the east and leaving McHenry County with its
county seat near its eastern boundary. Many residents complained bitterly
for the next few years about its location. By 1839, the community had two
hotels, a dry goods store, a general store, a shoemaker, blacksmith carpenter,
a sawmill, and a joiner shop. In 1840, the first school classes were held
at one end of the original hotel. In 1841, Richard Bishop built the areas
first wagon factory. The next year, the legislature acted, finally
authorizing the residents to select a new county seat. It was located
more centrally and called Centerville, in what is now Woodstock. In 1850,
a Baptist Church was constructed in McHenry. Railroad arrived to the area
in 1854 and caused another town to spring up. It was established on the
west bank of the Fox River and named Gagetown after George Gage who led the
effort to bring the rail system into the area. Gradually, businesses were
attracted to the western side of the river and the two communities merged under
the McHenry name. McHenry was formally incorporated as a village in
1872. In 1874, the town suffered a major fire to the key wagon building
industry. The factory burnt to the ground but was rebuilt larger than
before. In 1923, McHenry became a city.
The recent geological history in McHenry County is best illustrated by its glacially sculpted landscape. The region is a great place to see the profound effects of the perhaps 2,000 feet thick Pleistocene ice sheet. The rising and rolling landscape is a geologic treasure and place of uncommon beauty. Bedrock in the area consists of Silurian dolomite that is underlain by an erosional unconformity at its contact with fossil-rich Ordovician limestone. About 22,000 years ago, the Wisconsin Glacier covered most of McHenry County. The front of the glacier pulsated back and forth for about 10,000 years before retreating from the area. Glacial deposition and erosion left behind overwhelming evidence of this glacial coverage. Glacier artifacts in the county include a series of seven moraines, some of which overrode older moraines and some with “knob and kettle topography”. This county has it all; outwash plains, till plains, glacial erratics, subglacial valleys, delta kames, kettles and misfit streams, eskers, glacial lakes, and former meltwater channels (see Figure, Wiggers, 1997).
Glacial Park
General Information
Glacial Park spans some 2,806 acres in Ringwood, Illinois and is fondly referred to by some as the “crown jewel” of the McHenry County Conservation District. It offers a wide variety of outdoor recreational activities including, picnicking, hiking, biking, horse backing, cross country skiing, canoeing, fishing and camping. In addition, many special programs and educational workshops are held at various times throughout the year in the park’s nature center. Park personnel also guide tours through the park at various times during the year along the 6.7 miles of winding, interconnected, trails (see Glacial Park Trail Map, MCCD). Park personnel in Glacial Park inventory each remnant, natural area site for fauna and flora in order to keep record of native, rare or endangered species. To view a list of threatened species at the park link to: http://www.mcdef.org/nipfact.htm. Non-native plant species are often removed and brush is cut regularly to help re-establish native habitats. In all, more than 420 plant species contribute to the beauty and rich biological diversity in the Glacial Park-Lost Valley Marsh area. Examples include bur, white, black, and Hill’s oak, and forbs such as Culver’s root, shooting star, and yellow grass. There are also 222 species of birds found regularly in McHenry County. Canada geese, ducks, frogs, turtles and a variety of bird types are observed regularly around the wetlands, and around feeding time, raccoons and the occasional coyote visit the area in search of food. For descriptions and pictures of much of this wildlife, visit a nature website at (http://www.enature.com/).
Scientific Information
Physical Geography and Topography of Glacial
Park
There is a lot of knowledge and enjoyment to be
gained about Glacial Park for those with a scientific interest as well. This
park is referred to by some as one of the “12 natural wonders of the Chicago
wilderness.” The park is located between the north-south trending Cary and
Fox Lake end moraines. The Cary Moraine forms the wooded heights to the
southwest near Wonder Lake, Illinois. The Fox Lake Moraine forms a more subdued
hummocky (knob and kettle) area that is actually less elevated than its outwash
plain west of Fox Lake. The Nippersink Creek valley is between the two
moraines (see Topographic
map and zoom in, MapQuest).
Kames
The most notable feature in the park is a camelback kame with a terrace pattern and borrow pit etched into the side of the kame. Park ecologist Ed Collins says the pattern is actually from generations of cattle contour grazing rather than a depositional or erosion feature. Material from the borrow pit was probably used as construction material before becoming a public trust. Another geologic marvel includes, a rare, nicely sorted, fine, sand kame that was a glacial top stream deposit. In contrast, the camelback kame contains unsorted, till-like angular and rounded cobbles in a much finer brown matrix. Most kames owe their origin to the last days of a waning glacier. Geologists believe that the camelback kame and some of the smaller ones in Glacial Park formed at the leading edge of the glacier as a delta kame. This contrast attests to the complexity of deposition systems near a glacier front. It is believed that meltwater flowing down the Nippersink Creek valley dumped debris layer after layer into a large lake. When glacial floods reached the placid water of the ancient glacial lake, the velocity dropped so drastically that sediment built distally as a delta. If the kames had formed beneath the glacier due to sediment deposition in crevasses or moulins rather than as part of a delta, the brunt force of repeated jokulhlaups down the valley would have destroyed them (see Photo, Sleeth, 2000).
Wetlands
Though
a rarity in such a small area, Glacial Park contains all three types of kettle lake
remnant wetlands- fens, bogs and marshes. The park has an elevated fen, and
well-developed stream, bog, and marsh ecosystems. It also has prairie and oak savanna ecosystems. Many plant
and animal communities flourish here, with wetlands being the prime
ecosystem. Statewide, 40 percent of Illinois’ threatened and endangered
plant and animal species rely on wetlands. Wetlands help control flooding
and protect the water quality. The storage and/or slow release of flood
runoff back to streams help prevent erosion downstream, and it stabilizes
baseflow. This helps maintain the water table level and aids in the
recharge of groundwater. Wetlands also remove sediment, nutrients, and
toxic chemicals from runoff water and are valued for recreational purposes. The wetland depressions in Glacial Park
formed, about 14,000 years ago, around the tail end of the Pleistocene ice
age. In time, without any stream recharge or channel outflow, these
shallow depressions, partially dried up to form fens, bogs, and marshes.
Plant communities such as skunk cabbage, for example, prefer soggy, alkaline
conditions and thrive in fens. Alkalinity in fens can occur when
groundwater percolates up through soil or bedrock and picks up salt ions that
later precipitate near the surface. In contrast, bogs are acidic
environments. Bogs often contain sphagnum moss and leather-leaf
shrubs. Marshes often are
inhabited by cattails and by bulrushes. With enough time, nutrient rich wetlands
may entirely fill with organic matter and dry up (see Photo, Sleeth, 2000).
Nippersink
Creek Information
Another important aspect of Glacial Park is the
ongoing one-mile long dechannelization project in the Nippersink Creek. In
1951, before the park district bought the land, a 1.8-mile long section of the
creek was channelized to reduce its floodplain. This allowed excess water
to run off the fields so they could be used for agriculture and grazing.
Figure 3-3 shows a reproduction of the original channel. The Nippersink
Creek is just a trickle of what it once was. This stream, a misfit or
underfit stream occupies a contrasting much larger valley that once helped
drain surging meltwater from the Wisconsinan Glacier. Its eastward flow
is in the opposite direction of what it was during the Pleistocene Epoch.
At the time, ice blocked lowlands to the east and caused the Nippersink Creek
to flow to the west. Local tributaries did not obtain their present flow
orientation until the master river in the region, the Fox, settled on its more
eastern valley (see Figure, MCCD).
Dechannelization Importance
Dechannelization is important to the environment because water flowing at a quick pace through straightened streams causes more erosion on the sides of the creek bed and increases discharge down stream. This happens because there is less surface area for drag resistance and because discharge increases as a function of (width x depth x velocity). Too much material entering the stream can make it difficult for aquatic life forms to survive. Recreating original stream meanders decreases the stream current and velocity and dissipates the energy of over bank flow. It also helps to create inhabitable pools throughout the length of the stream. Furthermore, in contrast to steep banks that confine upstream floodwater and cause flooding downstream, gently sloped banks allow floodwaters to create temporary wetlands. Restored banks along the Nippersink Creek have been seeded, are watered as needed and are sloped no steeper than 3:1. Boulders have been placed along the curves where erosion is expected to be the greatest.
Stream Rating
With an overall rating of “B” in 1993, the Nippersink Creek watershed contains one of Illinois’ highest quality streams. This watershed is home to many endangered or threatened life forms that are sensitive to habitat change. Therefore, it is increasingly important to restore and maintain native habitat and high stream quality. Stream quality is determined by sampling the stream’s fish population. The formula for assigning a stream rating is called an Index of Biotic Integrity. It is based on the number of species, the proportion of diseased fish, and the percentage of fish that are intolerant to pollution. The stream in Glacial Park is good primarily because it is rural and buffered from industrial pollution and from erosion problems, with the exception of the channelized portions that are now being restored. By 1995, the Nippersink Creek had attained an “A” rating. The removing of invasive buckthorn, Siberian Elm, and box elder, none of which have much value to wildlife, brush cutting and the planting of native oaks are done in addition to creating a healthier Nippersink Creek. To see results of stream quality testing on this stream link to http://www.mcdef.org/nipclas.htm
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