By Jen DeSalvo, WLS-AM 890 News
(WILMINGTON) A special event is being held on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmingon, Illinois to view the 23 bison cows that arrived at the Prairie in October, 2015. The event will include close-up viewing of the herd which came from the Buffalo Country Buffalo Ranch in Gann Valley, South Dakota.
The U.S. Forest Service plans to provide free shuttle buses from the neighboring communities of Elwood and Wilmington on Saturday for the bison viewing event.
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie will be available to answer questions and provide “interpretive services.”
According to the Midewin Bison Expedition website:
Shuttle buses will pick visitors up near the Village Hall in Elwood and also near the post office in Wilmington at North Water Street at Van Buren. The shuttles will start at 9 am on May 7th and will depart every 15 to 20 minutes until 4 pm. The last shuttle bus will depart from Midewin to the communities at 4:30pm. Public parking will not be available at Midewin’s Iron Bridge Trailhead during the event.
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie is located north of Wilmington, IL, roughly one hour southwest of Chicago. The Prairie can be accessed by traveling Interstate 55 south to the River Road Exit 241 or by taking Interstate 80 to the IL-53/Chicago Ave. and proceed south.
Midewin, formerly a part of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant, “represents a major effort to restore 20,000 acres of farmland and industrial land to a unique American landscape and the complex ecology of the prairie.”
After decades of contamination from TNT testing, the restoration of the Prairie and neighboring Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery have be steady since 1996.
