Agencies
Services
Nature Preserve Area
6
County
Ford
Location And Access
From Paxton at jct. Hwys. 9 & 45, take Hwy. 45 south 1 mi. to Green Street, then turn and go east 0.2 mi. to an intersection. The nature preserve is to the east.
Description
Prospect Cemetery Prairie is a 5 acre cemetery with a remnant mesic black soil prairie of the Grand Prairie Section of the Grand Prairie Natural Division. Created in 1859, Prospect Cemetery was the first cemetery in the county. Burials continued until 1914 and possibly later. The preserve has a natural appearance in the southern third of the site, where the high quality prairie reflects presettlement conditions. Some 80 species of native herbaceous forbs and grasses have been identified, of which 21 occur nowhere else in the county. A few of these unusual plants are yellow star-grass, green milkweed, cream wild indigo, prairie gentian and prairie blazingstar. Common occurring species include big bluestem, Indian grass, little bluestem, and prairie dropseed.
Ownership
Paxton Township Cemetery Association
Dedicated
October 1976
Size
5 acres
Topographic Quad
Paxton
Topo Map
For Further Information
Patton Township Board, 133 W. Franklin Street, Paxton, IL 60957 (217/379-3340)