Inside, Out & About Features Wampum Lake

This month Inside, Out & About takes you a journey of Wampum Lake located in south suburban Cook County near Thornton, Illinois. At 412-acres it includes the Wampum Lake Nature Preserve, a mosaic of sand seep, freshwater marsh, dry-mesic upland forest, wet floodplain forest and an eroding bluff community along Thorn Creek, a 20.8-mile-long tributary of the Little Calumet River. 

Our Inside, Out & About online resources include an in-depth look at Wampum Lake (and six other natural sites), featuring its history, wildlife, family activities, community connections, and wellness. By promoting the use of natural areas, Inside, Out & About encourages stewardship, and helps people understand that being outside in nature is good for physical and emotional health. The online resources are also available in Spanish. Inside, Out & About’s companion podcast featuring Wampum Lake will be available soon.

Wampum Lake includes a mix of creekside habitat, savannah, woodlands, and floodplain forest and also has natural springs that create wet, marshy areas in the woods, particularly in spring. The lake itself has nearly one mile of shoreline. Since 2015, Friends has been working with the Forest Preserves of Cook County on turtle nesting habitat restoration projects at Wampum Lake as well as at Watersmeet Woods in Winnetka, Chipilly Woods in Northbrook, Skokie Lagoons in Glencoe, and Sag Quarries in Lemont.

Inside, Out & About online resources and podcast episodes feature significant sites of the Calumet region including Kickapoo Woods, Beaubien Woods, and Big Marsh Park as well as LaBagh Woods on Chicago’s Northwest Side, the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, and Bubbly Creek on the South Branch. Podcast episodes include interviews with wildlife scientists, environmental journalists, and Chicago history experts.