Almon Underwood Prairie Forest Preserve

2S480 South Lorang Road
Elburn, IL

Description

Almon Underwood Prairie has been dedicated an Illinois Nature Preserve. The preserve is covered with high quality, aboriginal, dry hill prairie plants. There are more than 50 types of prairie forbs and shrubs that create an exquisite display of color, throughout the blooming season.

The row-cropped fields surrounding these knolls are being restored with the native seed bank here, and the degraded wetlands are also on their way to recovery.

Almon Underwood Prairie Forest Preserve is located on South Lorang Road, approximately 3/4 mile south of Main Street, 1/2 mile north of Seavey Road, in Kaneville Township.

Preserve Map

History

The structure of Underwood Prairie is a series of small, undulating gravel knolls that are part of the Kaneville Esker, Illinois' longest esker, that was deposited here between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. It is believed that eskers were formed by glacial debris washing across the massive ice sheets, into sinuous cracks or chasms in the ice, which later melted, leaving this wandering, linear imprint on the landscape.