Buffalo Hart is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in northern

Sangamon County Sangamon County is a county located near the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 196,343. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital. Sangamon County is includ ...

in the U.S. state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. It is the population center of its own township, Buffalo Hart Township. Buffalo Hart was originally built in the 19th century, first as a frontier settlement based on a prairie grove, and then as a rural station stop on the Gilman, Clinton and Springfield Railroad twelve miles northeast of

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

, the state capital. Farmers would bring fresh vegetables and milk to the now-vanished railroad station for transportation into nearby cities. The railroad's successor-in-interest, the

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company () is a Canadian Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern and Southern United States. CN is Canada's largest railway, in terms of both revenue an ...

, continues to operate a right-of-way that passes through Buffalo Hart. A small grove of trees about 0.5 miles south of the village, which originally stood out amongst the

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to th ...

grassland of central Illinois, has long been called "Buffalo Hart." A three-acre remnant of the

white oak ''Quercus'' subgenus ''Quercus'' is one of the two subgenera into which the genus ''Quercus'' was divided in a 2017 classification (the other being subgenus ''Cerris''). It contains about 190 species divided among five sections. It may be calle ...

grove has been preserved for public use as the ''Robert Burns Memorial Park''. Buffalo Hart Grove had a post office as early as 1837, but by 2009 the mail location was long gone. The crossroads general store closed about 1971 and the trackside

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

was no longer in active use as of 2012. The unincorporated community is part of the

Springfield, Illinois metropolitan area The Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in Central Illinois, anchored by the city of Springfield. As of the 2000 census, the MSA had a population of 201 ...

, and is served by

Illinois Route 54 Illinois Route 54 (IL 54) is a east–west highway in east-central Illinois. It passes through the cities of Clinton, Gibson City, and Onarga. Its western terminus is at Interstate 55 (I-55) in Springfield. Its eastern terminus is at U.S. R ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Sangamon County, Illinois Springfield metropolitan area, Illinois Unincorporated communities in Illinois

See also

References