There are very few places outside the city of Chicago, I find myself being constantly pulled to. To anyone who knows me personally, I am certainly a city boy through and through. Compounded with the fact of being born and raised ten miles outside of the city of Manhattan, my knowledge and general interest of Illinois as a whole, is quite limited. But a few times a year, I find myself taking the one and a half hour trek out to Starved Rock State Park for a small taste of serenity.

It is by and large, my most important place outside of city limits that still exists within the boarders of Illinois. It is where my wife and I got engaged. It’s also where we took our first overnight trip together many years prior to my proposal. I’ve brought my mother there, many friends, and my late dog on many hikes up those trails. I’ve also used the park for photo shoots for my fashion clients. I will also sometimes just drive out there for a joyride and never leave my car. This road that connects each end of the park also happens to be one of the most technical roads I have driven on in Illinois. As a car and road trip lover, it’s match made in heaven.

Route 71 parallels the Illinois River on the south edge and passes through Starved Rock State Park.

This specific stretch of road I am referring to runs from Ottawa to Peru, Illinois. This pathway was originally created by glacier movement and eventually a catastrophic flood ~15,000 years ago. These ecological events eventually lead to a favorable area for the original Indigenous Peoples of the Americas to use this area for shelter for many, many years. This fertile land allowed for harvesting of maize, beans, and pumpkins. They also were able to use the river’s abundance for fishing and hunting of beaver, and bigger game like bison.

Later on, it was eventually explored and settled by the French in 1683 and eventually was also home to the first Norweigan-American immigrants in the midwest, dating back to 1834, and the area has a memorial dedicated to those who settled this area.

As a “settler” of the midwest from New Jersey, myself, I can understand why these natives and later the European immigrants chose this beautiful stretch of land. It’s calming. It’s absolutely serene and fertile. It is one place in the midwest that reminds me of a special place close to where I grew up. The winding roads, the elevated hiking trails, thick forests of the Delaware Water gap on the banks of the Delaware River gives me a momentary sense of a home away from home. I am always excited to go back.