For many years, the Fox family had a forest to themselves.
They lived in an unusual part of the Prairie State, a place with hundreds of acres under a tree canopy; a fantasy playground of hidden springs, secret caves, Indian mounds, river islands, backwater sloughs and natural landmarks such as Castle Rock, Wolf Hill, Squaw Rock and Devil`s Backbone.
The four Fox children had a tree house rivaling that of the Swiss Family Robinson. Their skating pond was a natural arena of Olympic quality. Their home turf was a children`s paradise, and, for their forester father, Howard Fox, it was arboreal bliss.
Now retired from his position as resident manager of one of the largest privately owned forests in the state, the 75-year-old Fox said: ”It was a good life. I was the envy of most of the foresters in the state of Illinois.” Before his retirement 13 years ago, Fox managed and lived in the Sinnissippi Forest in Ogle County. Along the scenic Rock River 90 miles west of Chicago, the forest blankets 2,300 acres and includes stands of 90-year-old oak and 80-year-old pines rising nearly 100 feet from the forest floor.
During Fox`s tenure as forester, he and his family had the Sinnissippi nearly to themselves because the public was not allowed into the private forest except by special invitation.
But within the next few weeks, the State of Illinois will close a deal to buy 1,196 choice acres of the property as a new state forest-the closest to Chicago-open for hiking, camping, hunting and other recreational uses.
A forester`s job, to a large degree, is to ensure that nature`s products are put to the greatest good. And considering the beauty and the history of this treasure-a great deal of which was planted by a former governor of Illinois, Frank O. Lowden (1861-1943), whose heirs now control it-it is fitting that this section of the Sinnissippi belong to the people of the state, said Fox, who still lives in the forest.
”I was glad to hear the state is going to buy a large part of it,” he said. ”Now it will be managed as forest land and people will get to use it. I was afraid it might be subdivided for houses. Anything is better than that.” The notion that suburban Chicago is lurking behind the nearest pine tree is strong in this verdant valley.
Oregon`s village librarian, Thelma Carpenter, who is celebrated for never hushing an opinion, provided her frank assessment of the situation as she dug out background on the state forest-to-be.
”There are even idiots buying $50,000 lots in fields along the river where I`ve seen carp spawning during high water,” she said. ”I know one guy who used to go there and fish with a baseball bat and a net. I hope those home-buyers building in the floodplain enjoy indoor swimming.”
Yes, she`s for it
As might be surmised, the librarian, too, welcomes the state to the forest across the river. ”As long as the state has the money, it beats seeing the Sinnissippi turned into riverfront lots,” she opined.
The Illinois Department of Conservation has a fund earmarked for acquiring land for state parks and forests. The money comes from a sales tax on computer software that brings in $10 million annually, said Anne Mueller of the Conservation Department.
The purchase price of the state`s portion of the forest will not be made public until the deal is done, probably in early June. But in a state ranked 46th in the nation in acres of public open space per capita, the Sinnissippi purchase is a smart buy. ”We are thrilled to get this land,” Mueller said.
Mueller noted that in 1820, there were 13.8 million acres of forest in Illinois. There are now just 4.26 million forested acres in the state, and 90 percent are privately owned tracts that average 21.5 acres.
”There are only about 25 parcels in the entire state that have 1,000 contiguous acres of forest,” she said. ”It is extremely rare to get the opportunity to buy something like this in northern Illinois where land values are so high. It is even more rare that it has been so carefully maintained.” When the deal is done, the Sinnissippi tract will actually be the smallest of five state forests. Sand Ridge in Mason County is 7,500 acres;
Trail of Tears in Union County, 5,100; Big River in Henderson County, 3,000;
and Hidden Springs in Shelby County, 1,200.
The newcomer is also much smaller than the Shawnee National Forest, which sprawls on 236,000 non-contiguous acres across the southern tip of the state. The Sinnissippi, however, will be the only state forest in northern Illinois and perhaps the most interesting from a historical point of view.
The forest originally was pieced together, and a great deal of it planted, by a onetime Illinois governor who became renowned for his love of farming and trees and for just saying no to higher office to stay close to both.
”Gov. Lowden put together nearly 4,800 acres of land over a 40-year period and he came to love the forest,” said Warren Miller, Lowden`s grandson.
Miller and his wife, Nancy, lived in the Sinnissippi and operated a saw mill there before retiring to Santa Barbara, Calif., a few years ago. Since they have no heirs, they decided to sell their inherited portion of the Lowden lands to the state rather than have it one day wind up as Sinnissippi Subdivision, said Miller, whose parents, the late Dr. C. Phillip Miller-a research scientist at the University of Chicago-and Florence Lowden Miller nurtured and tended the forest for 40 years.
More than 3,000 acres of the original Lowden holdings-including the state`s oldest Christmas tree farm-will remain in the hands of Miller`s brother, Phillip of Chicago, and a cousin, Nancy Culbertson of Lake Geneva, Wis.
In selling part of the forest to the state, Lowden`s descendants will be fulfilling his wishes as expressed in his biography, ”Squire of the Sinnissippi”: ”I like to think of this beautiful and fertile spot as the place where my children and my children`s children and their children after them will gather long after I have become dust, and in the shade of old trees my own hand has planted.”
The patriarch of this family and its forest was himself the son of a village blacksmith. Lowden was born in Sunrise, Minn., but at 7 moved with his family by covered wagon to a farm near Pleasant Point, Iowa. Lowden came from humble roots and worked his way through the Union Law School in Chicago.
He became one of the most-respected trial lawyers in Chicago and married into one of the city`s wealthiest families. In 1896, he wed Florence Pullman, daughter of George M. Pullman of the Pullman railroad car company.
In 1900, the Lowdens came to the Rock River Valley and eventually bought up more than a dozen farms on the east side of the river. Lowden`s wife named their holdings ”Sinnissippi” from American Indian terms meaning ”rocky river” or ”troubled waters.” The Lowdens built a mansion, now gone, called The Oaks on the property and became prominent in the valley. They gave land for a Boy Scout camp that still exists, and for years they operated Hilltop, a rest home for Chicago orphans in poor health.
Because the sandy soil of the valley was of limited use for crops, Lowden raised first beef cattle and later dairy herds on pastureland. To maintain the natural hardwood forest and augment it with non-native pine, Lowden became an avid student of forestry. He invited the University of Illinois forestry department to participate, and the Sinnissippi still serves as a field laboratory for U. of I. foresters.
Innovative squire
Lowden practiced innovative and sometimes unusual methods on his farms and forests, said Fox, who also was a U. of I. forestry instructor.
”I`m told Lowden once had 300 acres of brushy land that he wanted to clear for pasture, so he bought 500 angora goats and put them on it,” Fox said. ”They got rid of the brush, but then Lowden couldn`t get rid of the goats.”
The former governor`s greatest legacy is the trees that he planted. Some accounts say that more than 500,000 were seeded either directly by him or under his supervision.
He did not spend all of his time in the woods. Even as he was buying up Ogle County bottomland, he was eyeing political high ground. In 1904, the Republican made an unsuccessful run for governor, but in 1906 he was elected to the the U.S. House, where he served two terms.
In 1916, Lowden ran again for governor and this time won. From the start, Lowden insisted that he wanted to serve only one term because he wanted to get back to his farms and forest. His opponent in the gubernatorial campaign seized on this and scoffed that Lowden was merely a ”gentleman farmer” who claimed rural roots in a gratuitous bow to farmers.
When his opponent contended that Lowden had never even done any milking, the Squire of the Sinnissippi challenged him to a milking contest with the winner taking the governor`s office. Thus, Lowden`s opposition was cowed.
Aside from his record as a reform-minded governor from 1917 to 1921 and his reputation for being a gentleman farmer of udder proficiency, Lowden was renowned for refusing higher office.
Historical accounts have it that at one time or another Lowden turned down offers of presidential appointment to the posts of first assistant postmaster general, assistant secretary of the Navy, head of the Navy Department, ambassador to Great Britain and secretary of agriculture.
”He preferred to remain on his farm,” said his Tribune obituary.
Debra Fox Eide understands how Lowden felt. Although she is now a mother and art teacher in Bloomington, Ill., whenever possible she goes back under the forest canopy of her childhood, she said.
The youngest Fox said that though she is glad that at least part of the Sinnissippi will be saved as a public forest, she would be happiest if, even for just a little while, she could once again have it all to herself.
”You could go in there and hear a creek babble and the trees rustle and you could see an occasional deer,” she said. ”It was very tranquil and soothing. The solitude was wonderful. It was a wonderful place to grow up.”
