Openlands Lakeshore Preserve in Highland Park, Illinois

After the Haymarket Riot, the Commercial Club of Chicago saw a problem with the city; there was no nearby military garrison. The group had been campaigning since 1877 to build one close to Chicago, with efforts finally being realized ten years later after land was donated to the Federal Government. Ossian Cole Simonds was hired to create a site plan for what was to be known as Fort Sheridan, using the site’s ravines and vistas as natural fortification. Fort Sheridan was used as a training site for the U.S military until it was shut down in 1993, some hundred years later.  Part of this training included using live munitions – a foolhardy decision when subdivisions abut the training grounds. Openlands was transferred these former training grounds to repurpose it as a nature trail, until unexploded munitions were found in 2021 on the site, shutting it down until 2023. The lands reopened, however, in 2023, offering a beautiful vista of Lake Michigan. 

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