Wildlife Prairie State Park, officially dedicated as Hazel & Bill Rutherford Wildlife Prairie State Park, is an Illinois state park located in Peoria County, Illinois, in central Illinois, about 10 miles (16 km) west of downtown Peoria.
The massive park, consisisting of mostly wildlife animals native to Illinois, was first established in the late 1960s, and was first open to the public in the autumn of 1978 under the name Wildlife Prairie Park. It was transferred from private foundation ownership to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and renamed in autumn of 2001. A motel, restaurant, and other attractions are also located on the grounds. Years before environmental protection was common practice in most places, many of the man-made features of the park were built manually and with recycled materials to minimize the impact to the environment.
Famous quotes containing the words wildlife, prairie, state and/or park:
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control.”
—J. William Fulbright (b. 1905)
“Since the last one in a graveyard is believed to be the next one fated to die, funerals often end in a mad scramble.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)