Hidden Grotto
by Susan Rissi Tregoning
Title
Hidden Grotto
Artist
Susan Rissi Tregoning
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Autumn at Ferne Clyffe State Park is a glorious time of year!
Ferne Clyffe State Park, part of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, has been known as an outstanding natural scenic spot for more than a century. The most popular hike in the park is the Big Rocky Hollow Trail, an idyllic path beside a stream through rock formations that terminates at a shelter cave and waterfall. If you are lucky and it is the rainy season, it might be flowing!
Once the hunting grounds used by the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, a portion of the park was purchased by two brothers from Cairo in 1899. The brother’s named it Ferne Clyffe because of the abundance of ferns on the grounds. They eventually sold the property to Miss Emma Rebman, a local school teacher and the school superintendent for Johnson County. Miss Rebman opened it as a park on Sundays charging 10 cents a person to visit. It soon became a popular tourist attraction known for its fascinating limestone bluffs, cliff caves and rock formations, along with inspiring vistas and picturesque woodlands and several small seasonal waterfalls fed by runoff from the upper bluffs. She tried to sell it to the state much earlier, but they did not purchase it from her until 1949.
Copyright 2019 Susan Rissi Tregoning
Uploaded
November 5th, 2019
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Viewed 4,748 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/23/2024 at 8:14 PM
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