5 Surprising Illinois Landmarks Off the Beaten Prairie

Within a single Illinois road trip, you can drop into glacial sandstone canyons carved by rushing waterfalls, wander the 1880s brick streets of a revolutionary company town, and step inside the only home Abraham Lincoln ever owned. Here are five stops to make along the way.

Located in Oglesby along the south bank of the Illinois River, Starved Rock State Park is a 2,630-acre natural wonder and Illinois's most visited state park, drawing over 2 million visitors annually.

The park features 18 deep, moss-lined canyons carved out of St. Peter sandstone by ancient glacial meltwater floods. During the spring or after heavy rains, 14 of these canyons come alive with active waterfalls (the most famous being French Canyon, St. Louis Canyon, and Wildcat Canyon).

Local Native American legend says that in the 1760s, a band of Illiniwek fled to the top of the 125-foot sandstone bluff to escape a siege by the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes. Trapped on the summit with no food or water, they starved to death, giving the landmark its ominous name.

Located just a few miles south of its hugely popular neighbor, Matthiessen State Park is a 1,930-acre natural haven in La Salle County. It offers a dramatic mix of deep, forest-covered canyons, cascading waterfalls, and unusual rock formations.

The land was originally owned by Frederick William Matthiessen, a wealthy zinc tycoon and philanthropist. He developed it as a private nature preserve named "Deer Park", hiring a staff of full-time caretakers to tend the trails before his heirs donated the land to the state in 1943.

Unlike many state parks where you view canyons from above, Matthiessen’s trail system allows you to hike directly inside the riverbed canyon floor, hopping across large concrete stepping stones submerged right in the creek.

Spanning over 289,000 acres across the southernmost tip of Illinois, Shawnee National Forest is a massive federal reserve tucked between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It completely shatters the stereotype of flat Midwestern cornfields, replacing it with rugged Ozark-style hills.

Unlike the rest of Illinois, parts of southern Illinois escaped the flattening forces of ancient ice-age glaciers. This preserved a dramatic, prehistoric topography full of deep ravines and soaring bluffs.

This preserved 19th-century industrial community on Chicago’s Far South Side was built in 1880 by luxury railcar manufacturer George Pullman. It was America's first planned industrial town, with brick row houses, parks, and public buildings.

Before guiding a divided nation through the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln spent 17 years living in a modest two-story home in Springfield, Illinois. Purchased in 1844, this timber-frame house is the only home Lincoln ever owned.

It was here that he transformed from a small-town lawyer into a national leader, delivered his famous speech warning that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1860.