Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-06-29
APPLE RIVER CANYON
MAY BE STATE PARK.

The Canyon of Apple River, full
of scenic beauty, is a wild, rugged
natural formation of about four
hundred acres in the northern part
of Illinois, about 20 miles East Of
Gaiena, says the Illinois Journal of
Commerce.
Steep, high bluffs both deep and
shallow pools of clear water, tower
ing rocks, shopping hills, winding
streams carving their way throu III
bluffs to form canyon, roaring rapids,
dense, underground, gorgeous flow
ers, beautiful grassy plots, and seen
cry of startling beauty can be seen
in the course of a short walk through
the proposed state park Of Apple
River Canyon.
In the spring time it is Natures
own flower garden where hundreds
of varieties of flowers and vegetation
from the coffee bean to orchids more
wonderful than ever seen in a floral
market, are to be found.
In this wonderful beauty spot
that Nature has planted in Northern
Illinois is natural park that equals,
and in many respects, surpasses any
other area of cliff and forest, water
and ravine, that exists in this state.
Apple River Canyon is a genuine
gorge of the nature and physical
characteristics of a western canyon.
1t is some five miles long. $50 to $50
feet in depth, carved in solid lime
stone by running water. 1t is from
six to ten rods wide at the bottom,
One-fOurth or more of which is oc-
cupied by a stream that in some
places is a narrow rushing rapids
that cuts its way through the rocks.
At the top, the canyon is from an
eighth to quarter of a mile in
width. The walls are either precipi-
tous cliffs or long slopes. Everywhere
is forest. Side ravines of rare beauty
are numerous, and even the cliffs of
some of these ravines are $50 feet in
height.
Sixty species of trees grow in the
sheltered depths of the canyon; five
hundred wild plants are denizens of
it's confines; a hundred and twenty
species of birds visit at some season.
The waters of the river abound with
black bass and other fish. The wolf,
gray fox, mink, racoon, squirrels
and many small animals hide in it's
rocky Businesses.
In the days before the last Wis
consin Glacial epoch, perhaps ten
thousand years ago, Apple River
headed near Charles Mound on the
Illinois Wisconsin line in 10 Daviess
County and flowing east and south
gradually carved out a broadening
valley that finally debauched into
the Pecatonica along Yellow Greek
nv h OH bo Ic+
of FreepOrt. Both of these valleys
have all the signs of age and large
waters that might have flowed in one
direction at the period and then in
the opposite direction at later date
Well behring's show a great reckless
gorge south of Lena, doubtless a part
of this valley now hidden by the
glacial deposits
And then came the Wisconsin ice
sheet, cut in two and turned out Of
course by the Blue Mounds in 10
Daviess County and uniting again in
Carroll County. This ice damned
the ancient Apple River to form
lake, which eventually found an out
let through a divide southwest of the
site of Millville. Ever since, the run
ming water, now largely lessened in
volume, has been carving the lime
stone into the rugged and wonderful
canyon Of today.
1t is proposed that Illinois acquire
for park purposes not only Starved
Rock, but the Sand Cliffs at Oregon,
the Hardin County caves and bluffs,
the Mississippi cliffs at the Devils
Bake Oven, the Cahokia Mound and
Calhoun Point, Indian Head and the
frowning cliffs at Savanna, and last
but not least the marvellous water
carved tree-covered Canyon of Apple
River,