Dr. G Dennis Campbell
Director of Creekside
217-735-7260
[email protected]
Creekside, Lincoln College’s Outdoor Center for Environmental Education is an innovative 104-acre educational site recognized by the scientific community for its biological diversity and geological and archeological significance. The Center features a lecture pavilion, insectarium, greenhouse, restored tall grass prairie, native gardens, demonstration pond, counsel ring fire pit, solar and wind energy developments, storm water management and rain garden, nature trails, and access to Sugar Creek.
In addition to being used for Lincoln College science curriculum, Creekside is available to area educators for teaching students of all ages about land use, environmental science and conservation, research projects, and to the general public for walking and recreation.
Creekside has free parking and portable restroom facilities. Boardwalks and sidewalks make the site handicapped-accessible.
In 2005, Lincoln College student Judd McCullum discovered Illinois’ largest woolly mammoth fossil, large tusk and parts of another tusk, during a Lincoln College Environmental Biology field trip to Sugar Creek. The tusk is on permanent display at the College library on the main Lincoln campus. In 2006, Professor Dennis Campbell discovered a wooly mammoth tooth at the site. This tooth, the previous tusk, and additional material found in 2009 are carbon-14 dated to 11,500 years ago, making this mammoth one of the last woolly mammoths on Earth.
Creekside is an integral part of the coursework for students in the conservation biology major. So much of scientific investigation takes place outside of a lab and our students get to experience this first hand at Creekside. Topics discussed in lecture are brought to life at Creekside! Students from all course levels (freshman to senior) carry out experiments using portable laboratory equipment, robust enough to take a range of data, while being small enough to fit in their backpacks. Students can also choose to work alongside faculty and take part in their research or create their own!
A key feature of Creekside is the “Peoples of the Past Boardwalk” project which is an accessible interpretive trail to transport visitors hundreds of years into the past. As persons walk along the boardwalk, they also walk back in time from the present. The first phase of the project showcases pioneer and Kickapoo and Mississippian Native American cultures. Eventually, the boardwalk will extend back to the era of woolly mammoths. Currently the boardwalk extends to the Wibben Overlook that gives visitors an elevated vantage point to view Sugar Creek.
In addition to the woodland area along Sugar Creek, Creekside features restored prairie and wildflower areas that allow visitors and students to study and enjoy native plants during all seasons.
Creekside is located along Sugar Creek, about five miles north of Lincoln at 1234 County Road 2000N. Directions: From I-55 take exit 133 toward Lincoln. Turn left onto North Lincoln Parkway and travel three miles. Turn right on 1250th Ave. (Nicholson Road) and travel 3.1 miles (passing over I-55, past the Epperson Subdivision and over Kickapoo Creek) Turn left on 2000th St. (the second left after Kickapoo Creek) and travel about half a mile. Turn right onto the gravel road marked Small-Edwards Trace that leads to Creekside.
Lincoln College receives an Illinois Wildlife Preservation Fund Research Grant from the Illinois Department of Conservation to develop a protocol for the survey of small-stream freshwater mussels. This protocol is used for a long-term research project on the community of freshwater mussels of Sugar Creek and continues to the present day.
Lincoln College student Judd McCullum discovers Illinois’ largest wooly mammoth fossil, a large tusk and parts of another tusk, during a Lincoln College Environmental Biology field trip to Sugar Creek.
Professor Dennis Campbell discovers a wooly mammoth tooth at the Judd Mammoth site. This tooth, the previous tusk, and additional material found in 2009 are carbon-14 dated to 11,500 years ago, making this mammoth one of the last woolly mammoths on Earth.
Lincoln College receives a grant from the Illinois Plant Society (Central Chapter) to develop a handicapped-accessible prairie plot, and seeds were sown by College faculty, staff, and students on a 1-acre parcel at the proposed site of the College’s Outdoor Center.
Road and parking lot construction begins for the Lincoln College Outdoor Center for Environmental Education
Construction of the teaching pavilion and greenhouse is completed at the Outdoor Center.
Lincoln College receives an International Rotary Grant through the Lincoln Rotary Club and construction began on the Insectarium at Creekside Outdoor Cent
Lincoln College receives another Schoolyard Habitat Action Grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to develop the butterfly gardens within and outside the Insectarium.
Grand Opening is held for Creekside: Lincoln College’s Outdoor Center for Environmental Education.
Lincoln College receives the Illinois Native Plant Society (Central Chapter) Grant for the development of a Community Pollinator Habitat Initiative at Creekside, with seed planting completed in November.
A log cabin built by Pete Fredericks is acquired from the Lincoln Public School District and is relocated to Creekside.
Lincoln College Creekside Environmental Center is renamed the Dr. G. Dennis Campbell Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education at Lincoln College.
Lincoln College receives a Forever Wild Grant from WildOnes, Illinois Prairie Chapter to develop a Native Woodland Ethnobotanical Interpretive Garden at Creekside.
Lincoln College receives a grant from Illinois American Water to extend the boardwalk and to develop stream bank erosion interpretive signage at Creekside.
Through grants from Lincoln Rotary and Rotary International and donations from several local businesses and individuals, the Peoples of the Past Boardwalk is completed to the Wibben Overlook at Creekside.