Mile 54.25: Riverwoods (DPRT)
First visit: Jan. 2, 2023 Public trail? Yes Private land? Maybe a little Distance walked: 4.3 miles
What I consider to be the final leg of the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) in Lake County runs a little more than four miles from Half Day Rd. to Lake-Cook Rd. Here it is mostly west of the river and cut off from it by hotels and a golf course, until it meets the Des Plaines River again behind the legendary Par King Skill Golf Course. I’ll count this as the eighth golf course on the river since I’m also counting the disc golf course in Libertyville. Charming and inventive, Par King may be to golf what the Venetian Resort is to Venice, but it is a beloved landmark for many.
This section of the DPRT passes through three towns: Riverwoods, Lincolnshire and Wheeling, the latter of which is technically in both Lake and Cook Counties. As with some of the other trail sections that veer away from the water, like the Old School detour in Mettawa, it is possible to cheat the trail to get nearer the river. I did this in Spring Lake Park and Rivershire Park, both on the river’s east bank in Lincolnshire. These are scenic little parks with nominal river access that bookend an upscale riverside neighborhood, as exclusive as any on the Des Plaines, but they don’t offer much in the way of hiking.
The first few times I hiked this part of the DPRT I started in Potawatomi Woods, across Lake-Cook Rd. in Cook County, and walked north, which fed my impression that this is where the Des Plaines River turns into the urban river I knew growing up. This is partly due to the starkly suburban obstacles separating the trail from the river, as well as the leafy subdivision hemmed by the two Lincolnshire parks. It’s also, in a counterintuitive kind of way, reinforced by the Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area, an amazing natural oasis amidst the sprawling suburbia now pressing in from all sides — which can’t help but draw a contrast to how the river’s character begins changing up here. But in its efforts to preserve the land west of the river, and off of the DPRT, Ryerson Woods offers one of the last glimpses of how the river looked nearly a century ago.
Where the well-heeled kicked back
While notable for being the largest carrier of wastewater in the Chicago area, and possibly in the U.S. (see my stories about Gurnee and the Sanitary and Ship Canal), most people know the Des Plaines River as a destination for leisure and recreation activities, especially north of Lyons. And it’s been this way for a long time. Even while much of the river was being subjected to the ravages of agriculture and industry, the Des Plaines was also a getaway spot for urban dwellers. In fact, let me rephrase that and add a few adjectives: it was a prestigious getaway spot for well-heeled urban dwellers. While discussing Libertyville I referenced the architect David Adler, who moved there from the city and established a sprawling estate that is now Adler Memorial Park. Adlai Stevenson, a former Illinois governor whose father was Grover Cleveland’s V.P., built a home in what is now the Capt. Daniel Wright Woods. Other prominent Chicagoans set up weekend and vacation homes along the river as well, and perhaps none more accomplished than Edward L. Ryerson, and his friend Hermon Dunlap Smith.
Besides his time as chairman of the board for Inland Steel, from 1940 to 1953, Edward L. Ryerson also served on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Community Trust beginning in 1931, during the Great Depression. He remained with the committee for 27 years, the last 14 as its chairman. Biographical accounts describe him and his friend Hermon Dunlap Smith as “a new breed of businessman that emerged during the 1930s: the manager”. The Ryersons and Smiths, along with some other friends, began building log cabins on the east bank of the Des Plaines River in the 1920s, and in 1942 Ryerson built a summer estate there where they raised Arabian horses. So influential was Ryerson that a Great Lakes freighter was named after him. The SS Edward L. Ryerson was christened and launched in 1960, taken out of commission in 2009, and is rumored to be getting an overhaul in preparation for a possible re-launch. Shipping enthusiasts note that it is one of only two American-owned straight deck lake freighters.
Hermon Dunlap Smith, Ryerson’s colleague and friend, is likewise a titan of 20th century Chicago, even before attaching his legend to the Des Plaines River. Besides being president and CEO of insurance firm Marsh & McLennan, Smith served on the Chicago Community Trust’s executive committee from 1959 to 1972, and was at various times the president of the Newberry Library, the Chicago Historical Society, the Adler Planetarium, and the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs at the University of Chicago. To this day there is a Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library. His wife Ellen Thorne Smith was an accomplished ornithologist, and during World War II, the Field Museum appointed her associate curator of the Ornithology Department. In 1965, she became president of The Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of Chicago’s largest nonprofit social welfare organizations.
The rock stars of the Des Plaines River
In researching the Des Plaines River, I came across a hard-to-find book self-published by Smith in 1940 that examined the river’s history, with an emphasis on the river’s name. Titled The Des Plaines River, 1673-1940: A Brief Consideration of Its Names and History, it is exactly what its title says it is. Besides offering a fascinating chronology of the river’s name, which has included Plein, Le Plein, Aux Plaines and O’Plaine – as well as the Illinois, the Kickapoo, and several variations of Chicago – it also preserves observations about the river and pre-settlement natives made by the earliest European explorers, most of which I couldn’t find anywhere else. In that sense this is a rare and valuable archive of river history, which I’m providing a link to here. (Note: if I am found in violation of copyright restrictions, I’ll remove this content.)
Ryerson, who began donating his family’s land to the Lake County Forest Preserve in 1966, died in 1971. Smith died in 1983. This preserve is a living tribute to them, and their cabins are still there, though rehab efforts on Ryerson’s appear to have stalled. Smith’s features one of the best Des Plaines River exhibits I encountered during my travels, which has served as a reference for me as I’ve built this webste.
No disrespect meant towards any other nature preserves or the people they’re named for, but the Ryersons and Smiths are like the rock stars of the Des Plaines River, and the Edward L. Ryerson Conservation Area is, in my opinion, one of the two most amazing preserves on the river (the other being Isle a la Cache in Romeoville). Among other things, it’s been designated an Illinois Nature Preserve, as well as a Historic District by the National Register of Historic Places. It also has 6.5 miles of hiking trails, most of which I hiked on one cold, muddy January day (its north trail was closed for repairs). Because I walked the DPRT across the river, I don’t count any of these 6.5 miles towards my total. But I can’t wait to go back and do it again, when it’s all green.
Giving thanks to Lake County
Before moving on to Cook County, where the DPRT continues south with a few interruptions for another 28 miles, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the work done by the Lake County Forest Preserve to protect, preserve and provide access to the Des Plaines River. It is unlike any other trail system or conservation network on the river, offering present-day visitors a glimpse of how the river looked in its original, natural setting. The Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves is a non-profit 501 c3 charity that supplements the work done by the Forest Preserves and accepts tax-deductible donations from individuals and organizations. Beyond the Forest Preserve’s efforts, some of the most impressive and inspired Des Plaines watershed restoration is found in Lake County as well, thanks to groups like the Des Plaines River Watershed Workgroup and the Stormwater Management Commission of Lake County. Credit and thanks is due to all of these organizations, and probably more I haven’t listed here.