Illiniwek Park Profile
In the midst of World War II, Rock Island County looked forward to peace with the goal of creating new forest preserves. In 1943, the county Forest Preserve Commissioners began negotiating with the heirs of Albert Oltman to purchase his former 206-acre farm. A prominent feature of the farm was the huge barn. It had once been the Adams Gristmill in Rapids City before being moved to the Oltman farm. After more than a year of negotiations, the county purchased the property in 1944 for $40,000.
Ideas proposed for Illiniwek included facilities such as a boathouse, baseball field, beach house, and volleyball courts that did not materialize. Over the course of seventy years, many other features did become part of the history of the forest preserve including a campground, ski hill, skating rink, softball diamonds, mountain bike trail, tennis courts, and even an archery range.
What had been pastures and fields full of corn shocks would become recreational land when the new forest preserve opened in 1948. The county held a naming contest won by Katherine Walther of Port Bryon. The name Illiniwek honored the state’s Native American heritage. Illiniwek joined Dorrance Park in Port Byron and Loud Thunder near Andalusia in the county’s forest preserve system.
