Lincoln Trail State Park Facts

Located almost four hours south of Chicago in Clark County, Illinois, this 1,023-acre park was established in 1958 and is governed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Its main attraction is the 146-acre Lincoln Trail Lake which was the third lake created in Illinois under the Dingell-Johnson Act. The lake’s maximum depth is 41 feet. This park offers opportunities for camping, hiking, fishing, and boating with full service concession stand and seasonal dock rentals. The park was started in 1936 whereas the initial 31 acres were acquired by the state and officially dedicated in 1958.• Lincoln Trail Lake offers more than 7 miles of thickly wooded shoreline.

• Lincoln’s Heritage Trail is 1,000 miles long and opened in 1963 with 3,000 markers showing the way through Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
• Lincoln Trail State Park was originally settled by Native Americans with the main tribes in the area being the Piankeshaw and Wea, of a Miami group.
• The western boundary of the first cession is known as the Old Indian Boundary Line or the One O’Clock Line. It is called the One O’Clock Line because it is said that, if you look south from Pilot Grove in Vermilion County, the boundary runs in the direction of the sun at one o’clock in the afternoon.
• With various plant life found, the American Beech Woods is a noteworthy part of the park. The deep ravines of the preserve contain a beech-maple forest that is little changed from pioneer days.
• Southern Illinois and the eastern border of the state are the only areas where the American beech grows in Illinois. It is a distinctive tree, with smooth gray bark.