The Forest Preserve’s visitor centers are full of exhibits and displays that help visitors connect to Will County’s natural and cultural history, and exhibitions hosted throughout the year are intended to help enhance these connections.
The Nature Foundation of Will County routinely provides funding to allow the visitor centers to host world-class exhibitions that offer unique perspectives about the world around us past and present. Exhibits brought in with help from the Foundation in 2023 included “Journey Stories” at Isle a la Cache Museum; “World’s Finest: Fly-Fishing Tackle” at Monee Reservoir; and “Golden Opportunity: Botanical Illustration” at Four Rivers Environmental Education Center.
These exhibitions attract new visitors to Forest Preserve facilities and keep things fresh and interesting for returning guests, said Lydia Pond, the director of visitor services.
“The Nature Foundation funding allows us to do even more with our budget dollars,” Pond said, adding Forest Preserve staff can then spend time and resources developing complementary programming and displays during these exhibits.
At Isle a la Cache, “Journey Stories,” organized by the Smithsonian Institute Traveling Exhibition Service, allowed visitors to see how migration and movement shaped America through posters detailing Native American displacement, Western expansion, African American migration from the South and developments in transportation. Interactive components developed by museum staff let visitors examine their own journey stories while contemplating the journeys of those who came before us.
Monee Reservoir’s first-ever exhibition was a fitting complement to the preserve’s popularity as a fishing hotspot. “World’s Finest: Fly-Fishing Tackle,” created by the American Museum of Fly Fishing, showcased rods, reels, flies, photographs and books dating back to the 1800s and the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. During the exhibition, the visitor center also hosted programs to teach fly-fishing basics to interested anglers.
To end the year, Four Rivers hosted “Golden Opportunity: Botanical Illustration,” on loan from the Denver Botanic Gardens. With the color yellow as the centerpiece, the exhibit included illustrations of plants as well as displays about pigments and dyes created in this golden hue. Complementary programs hosted by education center staff enhanced the exhibit, allowing visitors a golden opportunity to examine the color yellow in a new way.
In 2024, the Foundation will continue to fund dynamic exhibitions, starting with the “Birds in Art” Exhibition at Plum Creek Nature Center. Later in the year, Isle a la Cache will host “Indige-Facts” and Four Rivers will host “Lost and Found — Remnants of Savannas and Old-growth Forests.”
Tara Neff, the executive director of the Nature Foundation of Will County, said the goal of providing funding for visitor center exhibitions is to allow the Forest Preserve to keep content fresh and offer new entry points for visitors.
“These exhibits are big draws,” Neff said, adding that visitor centers are free to visit unlike many museums. “We are encouraging visitorship.”
Foundation funding also helps support the creation of in-house exhibits, allowing visitor center staff to create high-quality exhibits related to our own preserves, Pond said. In 2023, Isle a la Cache Museum’s “Stories From Steel” Artifact Exhibit was created with support from the Foundation, as was the “Raising Riverview” exhibit coming to the museum in 2024.
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