Shawnee National Forest Travel Guide — Things to Do, Food & Hotels
United States National Forest located in Southern Illinois.
About Shawnee National Forest
Shawnee National Forest was established in 1933. The land it occupies was once productive and settled farmland, but erosion and unsustainable 19th-century farming practices led farming to become less viable. In the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's administration established the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) to use unemployed young men to restore environmentally degraded areas such as Southern Illinois. The plan for the forest was that it would reverse environmental damage and bring in tourist dollars to the economically depressed surrounding area. The forest is at the convergence of several ecological regions, so the wildlife is quite diverse. During the Illinoisan Stage (between 352,000 to 132,000 years ago), the Laurentide ice sheet covered up to 85 percent of Illinois.
Shawnee National Forest Travel Guide Sections
Our comprehensive guide covers 12 sections including: