The Burden Falls Wilderness is a 3,775-acre (15.3 km²) unit of the

Shawnee National Forest The Shawnee National Forest is a United States National Forest located in the Ozark and Shawnee Hills of Southern Illinois, United States. Administered by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, it consists of approximately 280,000 acres (1,100 km²) ...

. It is located in northwestern Pope County and southwestern Saline County, Illinois. The wilderness is characterized by road-less second-growth hardwood forest, punctuated by a small, seasonal

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

on Burden Creek. ''Burden Falls'' falls 20 feet (6 m) over a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

ledge, and the falling creek then descends another 80 feet (25 m) in a series of cascades and cataracts. Although this is a very small

by the nationwide standards of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, Burden Falls is one of the highest waterfalls in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

. Unlike most of the state, Pope County and extreme southern Illinois escaped glaciation during the

Ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

s, and steep slopes display the effects of lengthy

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

. Similar geological features in other regions of Illinois were ground into oblivion by the ice. Watercourses confined by sandstone ledges, of the sort found in Burden Falls Wilderness, are locally known as shut-ins. Hardwood trees in the wilderness include blackjack oak,

post oak ''Quercus stellata'', the post oak or iron oak, is a North American species of oak in the white oak section. It is a slow-growing oak that lives in dry areas on the edges of fields, tops of ridges also grows in poor soils, and is resistant to r ...

, and

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ''C ...

, the state tree of Illinois. Hikers use the ''Burden Falls Trail'', a 3.5-mile (5.5 km) pathway. The nearest town of any size is

Eddyville, Illinois Eddyville is a village in Pope County, Illinois, United States. The population was 153 at the 2000 census. Two designated wilderness areas, the Burden Falls Wilderness and the Lusk Creek Wilderness, are nearby. History Eddyville was laid out i ...

. The Burden Falls tract was listed as a wilderness under the Illinois Wilderness Act of 1990. Burden Falls in Winter, Long Exposure

References

External links

Wilderness.net
{{Protected Areas of Illinois IUCN Category Ib Protected areas established in 1990 1990 establishments in Illinois Protected areas of Pope County, Illinois Protected areas of Saline County, Illinois Wilderness areas of Illinois Shawnee National Forest

See also

References

External links