Dixon Springs State Park

Dixon Springs State Park 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 along a fault line that extends northwesterly across Pope County.  The area around the park was occupied by various tribes of Algonquins who, after the Shawnee had been driven from Tennessee, 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 IL Rt.145, one of the most scenic highways in the state, running nearly all of its length south from Harrisburg 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.

Dixon Springs takes its name from William Dixon, one of the first white settlers to build a home in this section, who obtained a school land warrant in 1848 from Governor Augustus C. French. His cabin was a landmark for many years as was an old log church on the adjoining knoll.  A small community grew up at Dixon Springs with a general store, post office, blacksmith shop, grist mill and several churches.  Three of the churches are together on a circle drive in the middle of the park, but beyond cabins and the DNR offices, there are no other buildings left within the park.

Dixon Springs became a 19th century health spa which attracted hundreds to the seven springs of mineral-enriched water. A bathhouse provided mineral or soft water baths, hot or cold, available at any time. The natural beauty of the area and its interesting stone formations helped to give the park valley a more equable temperature in the summer than most of southern Illinois. This made the resort so popular that people came to Golconda by steamboat excursions from as far away as Paducah, KY, Evansville, IN, and Cairo. From Golconda they then traveled by train to within a couple miles of the park.  There were nine named springs within the park, three of which we'd found, all of which (to my knowledge) have been capped, some with springhouses  around them and spigots for the water to flow out.


One of the oldest artifacts in the park is the Rainbow Lake dam north and upstream from the pool. Whitesides (one of the sites many owners) built it sometime in the 1890s and created a small lake where there was fishing and canoeing. Today the lake has silted in, but the rock wall dam is still visible below the youth camp.  A series of trails begin at the dam, and you can walk both on the top rim of it as well as in the canyon it creates.

There is a pool, bathhouse, many camping facilities, ans several parks and recreational areas within the park.  Across the street is the Chocolate Factory (which I posted about earlier on the blog page.)  Within a quarter mile South is a section of the Trail of Tears.  I have to admit though, it is just a paved road with houses on it, which we did not find to be very thrilling.

Directions:

Dixon Springs State Park is located in Pope County, just 30 miles south of Harrisburg, IL, or 20 miles north of Paducah, Ky. To reach Dixon Springs State Park from I-24 traveling East, take exit #16 to Rt. 146. At the stop sign turn left and the park is 13 miles on the left. If you are traveling West on I-24 you take exit #16 to Rt. 146. At the stop sign turn right and the park entrance is 13 miles on the left. The park entrance sign is across from the Chocolate Factory. Dixon Springs State Park is 1 mile east of Rt. 145.