Short History of the West Chicago Prairie

1896 – 1928: First stockyards on site. Part of the property is sold to become the air port, and the rest is torn down.

1929: New stockyards are built.

1930 – 1945: Very active.

1945 – 1964: Little activity, though there are some attempts at revival.

1964: Stockyards closed and property sold to developers.

Sometime between 1967 and 1974: Sand was quarried from a section near the current entrance by scraping off the top soil and scooping out the exposed sand.

1970: 16-year old Jonathan Voelz persuades Floyd Swink to visit the area. Swink writes a letter about the property, but nothing happens at the time.

1971: Two fires of suspicious origin destroy the grain elevator and the cattle barns.

1975: West Chicago mayor Dick Truitt “discovers” the Prairie. While attending a class at the Morton Arboretum, he tells Ray Schulenberg about the property. Schulenberg and Wayne Lampa of the DuPage Forest Preserve District visit the site and declare it “some of the finest native prairie remnants in the greater Chicago area”. This kicks off the preservation efforts.

1979: The City of West Chicago and the FPD purchase the original 150 acres, with the help of temporary funding from The Nature Conservancy.

1982: Mel Hoff forms the West Chicago Prairie Stewardship Group. The first work day is held March 26, 1983.

2006: After years of fits and starts, the City of West Chicago approves Illinois Nature Preserve status for 120 acres of the preserve on March 6, to be called the Truitt-Hoff Nature Preserve. This is basically all the original purchase, less the areas containing the Commonwealth Edison easements. The following day, the Forest Preserve District, which has been waiting for West Chicago to act, also signs application. The application is approved by the Nature Preserve Commission on May 2.