Horseshoe Lake Nature Preserve

Horseshoe Lake is an ancient oxbow of the Mississippi River and this entire preserve is on the Mississippi floodplain. The woods on Horseshoe Island is a near virgin forest of beech, sugar maple, swamp chestnut oak and American elm growing in loamy soils. Some of these trees reach up to 48″ in diameter. A bald cypress and tupelo community can be found in the interior sloughs and bordering Horseshoe Lake. Willow and swamp cottonwood are common associates here, with buttonbush as a typical shrub. The west tract is a forest of pin oak, sweet gum and other oaks growing in wet heavy soils. Interesting and unusual reptiles and amphibians include green treefrog, mole salamander and cottonmouth. Red-shouldered hawks, prothonotary warbler, fish crow and during the winter, bald eagles, may also be seen here.  The land is owned by Illinois Department of Natural Resources