History+of+the+Black+Hawk+Nature+Preserve

Original Author: Andrew Demeulemeester, ENG340 FL10 Revision Author:
 * History of the Black Hawk Nature Preserve**

Chief Black Hawk was born at the Sac village along the Rock River in 1767. When his father died in battle, Black Hawk took over as the leader of the Sauk tribe. During the struggles between the Americans and the British; Chief Black Hawk sided with the British in the War of 1812 (Macivor 96). It was 20 years later that Chief Black Hawk began his own war with the Americans. Between the months of April and August in the year 1832 “Black Hawk and 1,100 of his supporters crossed the Mississippi River and returned to their homelands in Illinois in defiance of a federal order.” (Warren 1). These federal orders Patrick Jung refers to are the treaties of 1804 and 1816. During the battles that were caused by these treaties; many Native Americans lost their lives from the Sauk, Meskwaki, Kickapoo, and Winnebago tribes (Warren 1).

Many Americans were not fortunate enough to escape with their lives either. According to Ivor Macivor with the post, “it took much of the United States Army, including a lanky volunteer named Abe Lincoln, to restore peace.” (Macivor 96) After the series of battles between the two sides, Chief Black Hawk found himself being held in a “pale-face prison”. It was during his time spent in this prison that he found time to write his autobiography. “The Autobiography of Black Hawk became a best seller of its day. Thousands of paleface readers felt duly contrite, and Black Hawk came to be highly esteemed before his death at the age of seventy-one in 1838.” (Macivor 96) Part of the land, once the property of the Sauk tribe, remained empty for decades until a group of young men changed its look for the better.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a group created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt that targeted unemployed men between the ages of 18-25. The CCC was created to provide “unskilled manual labor related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural areas of the United States from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to provide relief for unemployed youth who had a very hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on public lands in every U.S. state…” (“Civilian Conservation Corps”)

The CCC was responsible for helping and constructing over 800 parks in the country. They are even responsible for creating what we now refer to as the Black Hawk State Historical Site. The workers involved in the creation of the site were considered members of Camp Black Hawk. Camp Black Hawk was stationed in the area from 1933 to 1935. “Camp Black Hawk employed more than two hundred veterans of the First World War. In exchange for clothing, room, board and a dollar a day…during the eighteen months they were stationed at the site, they built six miles of hiking trails, trail structures, parking lots and two picnic shelters; planted thousands of trees and wildflowers; and constructed two-thirds of the present-day lodge.” (Black Hawk State Historic Site) The camp “consisted six barracks, a mess hall, a kitchen, an infirmary, bath house, and two latrines. The shower and toilet facilities at Camp Black Hawk made it among the most advance camps in the nation.” (Black Hawk State Historic Site) The Singing Bird Nature Center is a lodge that was also built by the CCC.

The finishing product of the CCC’s hard work and determination resulted in a beautiful nature preserve with many winding trails that visitors can walk while taking in the scenery of the forests, local flowers, and wildlife. This past Native American land has become a beautiful treasure that families can visit for years to come.


 * Works Cited**

"Black Hawk State Historic Site: History." //Black Hawk State Historic Site//. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2010. [] "Civilian Conservation Corps." //Wikipedia//. Wikipedia, 3 Dec 2010. Web. [] Macivor, Ivor. "A Good and Dead Indian." //Saturday Evening Post// 13 Mar 1934: 96. Print. Warren, Stephen. " The Black Hawk War of 1832." (2005): 1. //Ebsco//. Web. 7 Dec 2010. []

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