Lincoln Memorial Garden

Address: 2301 East Lake Shore Drive, Springfield, IL.

 Phone (217) 529-1111

Website: http://www.lincolnmemorialgarden.org/

This is a botanical garden, for lack of a better term, showcasing the plants of Abraham Lincoln's three states he grew up in:  Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana.  As a result, several Illinois-rare species, such as the silverbell tree, can be found here because they are far more prevalent in the other two states.  This is an ideal place to visit in the springtime, but there is no season in which Lincoln Memorial Gardens is not worth visiting.  An attached prairie restoration, the Ostermeier Prairie Center, contains more ecosystems, including one of the best turtle-watching ponds in the Springfield area. With a variety of habitats, the Gardens is also ideal for birdwatching.  I heavily recommend the birdfeeders next to the visitor center and Lakeshore Trail for doing so.  This also used to be one of the best places to watch watersnakes sunbathe, but in recent years the ideal trees at which to do so have fallen into Lake Springfield.  So, in consolation, here is one of the aforesaid watersnakes.

Best Trails (viewable as PDF here)-

Lakeshore Trail

Silverbell / Fringe Tree Trails

 Buckeye/Shadbush Trails over Walgreen Bridge to the big oak tree and all the way over to the Prairie Center Pond Trail.

There are many other trails worthy of taking, but these contain the most features in the shortest amount of time.   For a general loop, I recommend taking Buckeye Trail to Lake Trail, north to Cypress Point and over to Fringe Tree/ Silverbell Trails back to the Nature center.  If you have kids, do not do this.  Instead, take Buckeye/Shadbush Trails directly over to Walgreen Bridge and the big oak tree.  Beware, as there is an area between the second and third bridge where the trail branches off directly into Lake Springfield, and the shoreline is quite muddy there.

Features of Interest:  There is a very large old oak tree in one corner of the Garden, roughly two hundred and fifty years old.  In another corner, baldcypress trees grow, in a pale imitation of southern swamps,  A moderately sized prairie restoration occupies several acres, and patches along Lake Trail also contain prairie and prairie species such as Silene regia (Royal Catchfly), one of many state-threatened species of plants that grow here.  This is not a fully natural area, being a gardens, but it was one of the first nature preserves I ever visited in my life, and so it holds a special place for me.  Besides, there are few other areas in Central Illinois where you can see nearly every showy, garden-worthy plant species the land has to offer.  Small nonmammals can be common in some areas, but this is not a great place to go and watch deer.  While they have been seen here, the area is too popular with people for them to linger.  There's other places for deer-watching.