Beaver Falls (Madison County, Illinois)

Many years ago when I was a boy, I remember hiking to a small waterfall in the green wood near my home. It was while on a field trip. In the years since, I've often thought of place, but had no idea of it's exactly location. My directional skills were not so developed at that age. Only recently, I discovered that waterfall is called Beaver Falls and is approximately a mile and half back in the woods on the property of the Nature Institute, off of Levis Lane and up the bluffs behind Blue Pool.

As I was in St. Louis on business, I took a few extra days to visit with family and friends. I also planned a little time to revisit the small waterfall from my childhood memory. After arriving at the trailhead, I reviewed the posted map, which is little more than a few lines carved and painted into a piece of plywood and posted as an information an informational sign. I sprayed myself down with mosquito repellant, without which I probably would have been eaten alive by the little buggers in this humid wood above the Mississippi River's limestone bluffs. And then, I was off on my little adventure into the past.

At first, the trail was well cut, but as I proceeded I found it getting less and less easy to distinguish trail from woods. I also could not get a sense of direction in relation to the map. Eventually, I discovered this was due to my having taking a wrong turn. This was with the help of a referenced marker, noting the beginning of the Underground Railroad here at Hop Hollow. According to the marker, this was the jumping off point for thousands of slaves seeking freedom in the North prior to Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. A humbling site to be sure.

Continuing on, now with a better sense of where I was, I came across a small group of whitetail deer. I stopped to watch them as they foraged the area. After a few minutes, they had moved on and I made my way to the dry creek bed as described on the map. Unlike other creeks, which I was familiar with in the area, this one had many limestone steps as it made it's way downhill toward the mighty river below. During a year without the terrible drought we are now in, each of these steps would have produced a small waterfall onto itself.

Further upstream, or at least what would have been upstream, I came to a carved out area sunken below the surrounding woods. While it was dry and no water currently flowed over the fifteen foot-tall cliff directly in front of me, there was no mistaking this as the falls from my memory. In years past, there had been a small pool at what would have been the base of the falls. Over time, it appears that pool has been filled with silt and mud, but a good rain would probably bring it to life once again.

Having fulfilled my quest and found this place from my childhood, I headed back to the car. It was great to have visited this place once again and I look forward to returning again someday.