The High Road: The Changing Lake's Edge

It is hard to imagine that 14,000 years ago our communities would have been buried under thousands of feet of ice. And the glacier, known as the Laurentide ice sheet, over the next 2000 years would me...

From Trees to Ice: The Reforestation of the Region, Post-Glacier

Unlike the arid lands left in the Great Plains after the melting of the ice sheets, the northern region of Illinois provided the rich soil, ample water source, and temperate climate that allowed grass...

What's in a Name? Appellations for West Lake Forest

Dating back to the earliest settlers, the growing community in west Lake Forest collected several monikers – official and unofficial.Meehan's SettlementIrish immigrants Michael Meehan and his wife Bri...

Mammoths and Mastodons

Mastodons (Mammut americanum) and woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) were unrelated large elephant-like creatures that roamed Illinois until about 13,000 years ago.The wooly mammoth, more equipped...

Lake Forest map, 1861

Map: Lake Forest and environs, 1861

O Pioneers: Early European Settlers in West Lake Forest

The first pioneers to settle in west Lake Forest were mostly Irish immigrants. Many had come to Illinois to work on the Illinois & Michigan Canal. Under the terms of the Treaty of Chicago, by 1836...