| Dixon Springs State Park is one of several state parks in the Illinois Shawnee Hills. The park is on a giant block of rock which was dropped 200 feet along a fault line that extends northwesterly across Pope County.
The 801 acre park is about ten miles west of Golconda on Illinois Route 146 near its junction with Illinois Route 145. The first land acquisition was in 1946.
History
The area around the park was occupied by various tribes of Algonquins who, after the Shawnee had been driven from Tennessee, had settled near the mouth of the Wabash River. Dixon Springs was one of their favorite camping grounds & was called "Kitchemuske-nee-be" for the Great Medicine Waters.
One of the better known Indian Trails, which the early French called the "Grand Trace," passed to the west of the park & south to Fort Massac, then branched out into lesser trails. Much of the "Grand Trace" is Illinois Route 145, one of the most scenic highways in the state, running nearly all of its length south from Harrisburg through the Shawnee National Forest.
This section of the state was part of an Indian Reservation occupied for a time by about 6,000 Native Americans. Like the buffalo, most of the Indians were gone by the early 1830's.
Dixon Springs takes its name from William Dixon, one of the first white settlers to build a home in this section, who obtained a school land warrant in 1848 from Governor Augustus C. French. His cabin was a landmark for many years as was an old log church on the adjoining knoll.
A small community grew up at Dixon Springs with a general store, post office, blacksmith shop, grist mill, & several churches.Dixon Springs
Dixon Springs became a 19th century health spa which attracted hundreds to the seven springs of mineral-enriched water. A bathhouse provided mineral or soft H2O baths, hot or cold, available at any time. The natural beauty of the area & its interesting stone formations helped to give the park valley a more equable temperature in the summer than most of southern Illinois. This made the resort so popular that people came by steamboat excursions from as far away as Paducah, KY, Evansville, IN, & Cairo to Golconda. They then traveled by train to within a couple miles of the park.
The entire county is hilly & during rainy weather rivulets cascade down the hills in the park forming waterfalls of varying sizes & heights.
Bold cliffs & crags overhang a bubbling brook while large boulders, overgrown with ferns, ivy, lichens, & moss, fringe the hillside. Giant century-old trees interlock above the small creek as cliffs rise on either side & huge boulders are scattered through the valley.
Equally intriguing are the names given numerous points of interest, including Album Rock, Red Man's Retreat, Wolf Pen, Lover's Leap, Ghost Dance, Pluto's Cave. Alligator Rock, the Chain of Rocks, Devil's Workshop, & Honeycomb Rock. The principle canyon has walls nearly 60 feet high with a long, narrow passageway.
Deer, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, & foxes scamper around the oak, cypress, gum, pine, sycamore, walnut, persimmon, hickory, birch, & maple trees. Dogwood & catalpa trees blossom profusely in season. In the spring the Jack-in-the-pulpit, violet, lady's slipper, May apple, & sweet William brighten the natural beauty of the park. |
Campground: Dixon Springs State Park in Golconda Illinois *