The Wayne Fitzgerrell State Recreation Area is a 3,300-acre (13.4 km²) state park bordering Rend Lake near

Benton, Illinois Benton is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Illinois. The population was 6,709 at the 2020 census. History Founding Benton, the county seat of Franklin County, took its name from the prominent senator from Missouri, Thomas ...

. The state park is managed by the

Illinois Department of Natural Resources The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the state parks and state recreation areas, enforces the fishing and game laws of Illinois, regulates Illinois coal mines, ...

to concentrate on shoreline recreation, including boating,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

, and

picnicking A picnic is a meal taken outdoors ( ''al fresco'') as part of an excursion, especially in scenic surroundings, such as a park, lakeside, or other place affording an interesting view, or else in conjunction with a public event such as preceding ...

. After Rend Lake was completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1970, much of the land acquired by the Army Corps for dam and reservoir construction was available for open-space use. Starting in 1975, the Army Corps leased the Wayne Fitzgerrell parcel of land to the state of Illinois. The state park is named for Wayne Fitzgerrell, a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from nearby Wayne County in the 70th through 74th General Assemblies. Fitzgerrell had been one of the local leaders who had called for the damming of the Big Muddy River and creation of Rend Lake. Wayne Fitzgerrell was originally dedicated as a state park but changed its name in the 1990s to reflect its identity as a space managed for sportsmen. 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of the park is consciously managed for the hunting of

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

, upland birds such as

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

s, and small game. The park is a focus of public access to Rend Lake, which is managed for the fishing of

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

, bluegill, channel catfish, and crappie. Wayne Fitzgerrell is one of the few state parks in Illinois which is bisected by a limited-access highway,

Interstate 57 Interstate 57 (I-57) is a north–south Interstate Highway in Missouri and Illinois that parallels the old Illinois Central Railroad for much of its route. It runs from Sikeston, Missouri, at I-55 to Chicago, Illinois, at I-94. I-57 ess ...

. Many visitors to the park use I-57's Exit 77, near the park's headquarters at Whittington, Illinois.

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External links

* {{authority control Protected areas of Franklin County, Illinois Protected areas of Jefferson County, Illinois Protected areas established in 1975 1975 establishments in Illinois State parks of Illinois