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Random House dictionary defines greenway: any scenic trail or route set aside for travel or recreational activities.
Dictionary.com defines watershed: the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc.; drainage area.
In the case of Salt Creek in Illinois, a greenway along the watershed can provide fun and recreation just outside the confines of our big city, because the volunteers of the Salt Creek Greenway Association have been working to properly define the terms.
Thanks to volunteers like Valerie Spale and Audrey Muschler, there are places to “stay-cate” along the banks of our very own branch of this river; Today we can follow a bike trail from Lyons, IL, their Portage Point, past Brookfield Zoo, through Bemis Woods to Hinsdale and Oakbrook, and northwards to Villa Park, Glen Ellyn and Elmhurst, to Busse Woods in Schaumburg, the river’s head.
There are land trails, water trails, canoe trails and bike trails for your backyard vacation up the Salt Creek Greenway, with historic sites and beautiful natural prairie and wetlands to see along the watershed.
Spale never dreamed she’d end up spending decades when she volunteered at the Wolf Road Prairie in the ‘70’s, helping save it from developers, and working with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission, on which she served several terms. She and Muschler worked on the campaign to save Mayslake, succeeding in 1992 along with numerous groups including the DuPage County Forest Preserves, to help convince voters in DuPageCounty to add a tax increase to preserve the historic coal industrialist, Francis Peabody’s estate, set to be demolished. Today Mayslake is on the National Register of Historic Places, and plays host to tours, classes, weddings, plays, concerts and art exhibits at its mansion, grounds, and Portiuncula Chapel replica. Volunteer factions include gardening groups and preservationists’ projects.
Mayslake is just one of the offshoot websites from www.saltcreekgreenwayassociation.org’s site, which lists organizations along the greenway, along with geological, ecological and historical information, and many opportunities to get involved. There are work days for people who want to get out in the fields and clear out weeds and non-native species, cleanup days, and re-enactment tour guides along the Portage Point. People can paint and plaster at Mayslake Hall, garden, and research, take photographs, build websites, volunteer at Brookfield Zoo, and now, fight to save Graue Mill dam and restore the Ben Fuller House in Hinsdale, where school groups, senior groups, artists, photographers, nature enthusiasts, birders, trail users, history buffs, families and more enjoy the area to the east of the Graue Mill parking lot. At the mill, volunteer weavers, spinners and tour conductors entertain.
Before long Spale found herself devoting a huge portion of her life to the watershed projects along the Salt Creek, DesPlaines, I & M Canal confluence, working with groups to help create a trail linking the Salt Creek Greenway Trail to the Illinois Prairie Path, the Centennial Trail, the I & M Canal National Heritage Corridor and other trail systems.
Spale and Muschler are volunteers who believe in a cause, which is what it takes to get things done. They held a conference with all of the park districts and municipalities in the watershed, prompting a coalition to apply for and receive a Federal Grant to treat the Salt Creek trail as a unit. In the ‘80’s the bike trail was extended northward, bisecting the Illinois Prairie Path.
Spale muses, “It’s quite remarkable when you think what people can accomplish when they are working together, even just two or three people.” For Spale, the volunteering has been fun. “As long as you enjoy it and it is productive for the time and effort you put in, it can be very rewarding. If not, then find another job.”
Where Spale helped define the open space issues, Muschler defined the role history plays in building this recreational base.
The website has historical tales of Native Americans, and Spale tells stories rumoring of Abe Lincoln meeting Fredrick Graue at his famous mill, a part of the Underground Railroad; and old hotels in Hinsdale and Riverside, then considered vacation spots amidst the prairies and forests before farmsteads and subdivisions were laid out along the ancient shore of Lake Michigan.
“The historical features are unequalled,” says Spale. “The stories need to be told and repeated. There are still bits and pieces to weave together.”
Ask Spale to choose which of the projects under her belt is her favorite, and she has difficulty, although Mayslake obviously holds a special place in her heart. “It’s like children; asking which one you love more; it’s hard to choose.” When you visit the Salt Creek Greenway Association website you'll have a hard time choosing which volunteer offshoot to follow.
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