Dixon Springs State Park
| Dixon Springs State Park | |
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IUCN category III (natural monument or feature)
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 Map of the U.S. state of Illinois showing the location of Dixon Springs State Park
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| Location | Pope County, Illinois, United States |
| Nearest city | Golconda, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 37°22′57″N 88°39′56″W / 37.38250°N 88.66556°WCoordinates: 37°22′57″N 88°39′56″W / 37.38250°N 88.66556°W |
| Area | 801 acres (324 ha) |
| Established | 1946 |
| Governing body | Illinois Department of Natural Resources |
Dixon Springs State Park is an Illinois state park in Pope County, Illinois, United States, and is one of several state parks in the Illinois Shawnee Hills. The park is on a giant block of rock which was dropped 200 feet (61 m) along a fault that extends northwesterly across Pope County. The 801-acre (324 ha) park is about 10 miles (16 km) west of Golconda on Illinois Route 146 near its junction with Illinois Route 145. The first land acquisition was in 1946.
The area around the park was occupied by various tribes of Algonquins who, after the Shawnee had been driven from Tennessee, had settled near the mouth of the Wabash River. Dixon Springs was one of their favorite camping grounds and was called "Kitchemuske-nee-be" for the Great Medicine Waters. One of the better known Indian trails, which the early French called the "Grand Trace," passed to the west of the park and south to Fort Massac, then branched out into lesser trails. Much of the "Grand Trace" is Illinois Route 145, one of the most scenic highways in the state, running nearly all of its length south from Harrisburg, Illinois through the Shawnee National Forest. This section of the state was part of an Indian reservation occupied for a time by about 6,000 Native Americans. Like the buffalo, most of the Indians were gone by the early 1830s.
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