Dixon Springs State Park is an Illinois state park in Pope County,

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

, United States, and is one of several

state parks State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

in the Illinois Shawnee Hills. The park is on a giant block of rock which was dropped along a fault that extends northwesterly across Pope County. The park is about west of

Golconda Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparu ...

on Illinois Route 146, near its junction with

Illinois Route 145 Illinois Route 145 is a north–south state road in southern Illinois. It splits off from U.S. Route 45 near Metropolis, Illinois, Metropolis (across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky) and runs north, rejoining U.S. 45 in Harrisburg, Illi ...

. The first land acquisition was in 1946.

History

The area around the park was occupied by various tribes of

Algonquins The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people who now live in Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi, ...

who, after the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

had been driven from

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, had settled near the mouth of the

Wabash River The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...

. Dixon Springs was one of their favorite camping grounds and was called "Kitchemuske-nee-be" for the Great Medicine Waters. One of the better known

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

trails, which the early French called the "Grand Trace," passed to the west of the park and south to

Fort Massac Fort Massac (or Fort Massiac) was a French colonial and early National-era fort on the Ohio River in Massac County, Illinois, United States. Its site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. History The Spanish explorer ...

, then branched out into lesser trails. Much of the "Grand Trace" is

and runs nearly all of its length south from

Harrisburg, Illinois Harrisburg () is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Illinois, United States. It is located about southwest of Evansville, Indiana, and southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Its 2020 population was 8,219, and the surrounding Harrisbur ...

, through 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) ...

. This section of the state was part of an

Indian reservation An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it ...

occupied for a time by about 6,000 Native Americans. Like the buffalo, most of the Indians were gone by the early 1830s. Dixon Springs takes its name from William Dixon, one of the first white

settlers A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

to build a home in this section, who obtained a school land warrant in 1848 from Governor Augustus C. French. His cabin was a landmark for many years, as was an old log church on the adjoining knoll. A small community grew up at Dixon Springs with a general store,

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop,

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

, and several churches. Dixon Springs became a 19th-century health

spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (and sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa towns or spa resorts (including hot springs resorts) typically offer various health treatments, which are also known as balneoth ...

that attracted hundreds to the seven springs of mineral-enriched water. A

bathhouse Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

provided mineral or soft water baths, hot or cold, available at any time. The natural environment of the area and its stone formations helped to give the park valley a more equable temperature in the summer than most of southern Illinois. This made the resort so popular that people came by

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

excursions from as far away as

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Missour ...

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...

, and

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

to Golconda. They then traveled by train to within a couple of miles of the park.

References

* * {{Authority control Pre-statehood history of Illinois Protected areas of Pope County, Illinois State parks of Illinois Protected areas established in 1946 1946 establishments in Illinois