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Things to do in Naperville
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DuPage Forest
The DuPage Forest Preserve is run
by a government agency that gets and holds lands that have
natural areas like wetlands, prairies, forests and other plant
communities, so that these areas can be saved and protected for
the recreation, enjoyment and education of the people of the
DuPage County. It began in 1915, to save the woodlands of the
region, with $8000 to take care of and manage the preserve.
After two years of developing the necessary criteria for the
acquisition, care and management of the preserve, a tax was
levied, and the first parcel was purchased containing 79 acres
in Oak Brook, called the York Woods. Presently, the district
holds some 25,000 acres of land and a budget of $65 million. The
preserve district is governed by a seven member board of
commissioners, and voted upon from each county, with a seventh
being the president, elected at large by the popular vote. This
commission translates the needs of the community citizens into
laws that will protect and increase the natural lands for the
enjoyment of all the people. Their main source of income is the
tax and bond sales, with extra income coming from support groups
and grants, with three golf areas bringing in money of their
own. They still get land to contain the growth of business and
housing. Within that 25,000 acres, there are 1450 picnic tables,
31 lakes and 145 miles of trails, so that the residents of the
county can come here to enjoy the natural beauty and charisma of
the preserve. Here they ride bikes, go camping, fishing,
horseback riding, biking, hiking picnicking and cross-country
skiing. The preserve is not just for the enjoyment of all, but
also the education of those interested in the many wonderful
opportunities that are within that forest. The Danada Equestrian
Center is one such place, that gives educational and
recreational equestrian activities for the county's residents.
Here they have developed programs that will create holistic
approaches to horses, their day to day care, and the basic
skills needed to ride. These are introductory and advance
horsemanship courses, seminars, clinics and summer tours. They
have horse drawn hayrides and sleigh rides throughout the year,
in season, and on the second Sunday of October have Danada Fall
Festival with the entire day being a grand affair about horses.
Just north of this center, the Danada House sits, a 19 room
house, formerly belonging to Ada L. and Daniel F. Rice, business
people, thoroughbred racehorse owners, breeders and
philanthropists. They were such wonderful people that many
places have been named after them. By combining their first
names, Dan and Ada, the term Danada was created and used for
their home and also the forest area. The Fullersburg Woods
Nature Education Center is also part of the preserve, with a
skeleton of a 13,000 year old wholly mammoth being located there
among the many marvelous exhibits about the flora and fauna of
the region. Less than a mile from here, the Graue Mill and
museum sits, a National Historic Landmark, that allows visitors
to experience the workings of a real mill that operated over a
century ago. Another venue within the preserve is the Kline
Creek farm that is found in the Timber Ridge Forest Preserve, an
1800s living history farm complete with restored barn and
farmhouse, with all the related equipment. The Mayslake Peabody
estate rests in the Mayslake Forest Preserve on 90 acres, that
contains the hall, a retreat wing and chapel called Portiuncula,
which is a copy of the Chapel of St. Francis of Assisi in
Assisi, Italy. The magnificent 39 room Tudor Revival mansion was
built between 1919 and 1921 for coal baron Francis Stuyvesant
Peabody; and is listed on the National Register of Historic
Places. The Willowbrook Wildlife Center is the rehab and
education center for the preserve district, and it contains
around 80 disabled animals from the wild, that have become
permanent residents, and include; raccoons, woodchucks, eagles,
red foxes, songbirds, hawks and owls. Three public golf courses
are located within the preserve district, the Oak Meadows, Maple
Meadows and Green Meadows. The Mallard Lake County Forest
Preserve is a 949 acre forest that encompassed Mallard Lake, an
85 acres lake that is the biggest in the district. The McDowell
Grove Forest Preserve is a 439 acre retreat that once held a
Civilian Conservation Camp and US Army Signal Corps training
facility.
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Pfeiffer Hall North Central College
Pfeiffer Hall is part of
North Central College, located in Naperville, Illinois, and has
drawn multitudes of people interested in the arts to come here,
both for enjoyment and for performances. The hall was built in
1926, and has been the home of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra and
the Naperville-North Central College Performing Arts Association
for many years. Other community groups have also used the
facilities, like the many churches, community arts groups,
schools, the college's theatrical and musical programs,
community theatrical and musical performances, organizations and
more. There is a 1057 seat auditorium, that sits 469 in the
balcony and 588 on the main floor. It contains the classrooms,
offices and practice rooms for the college's departments of
theater, music and speech communications; as well as the
continuing education music programs for the citizens of the
county. It originally was constructed to house the school's
chapel, called the Barbara Pfeiffer Memorial Hall and over the
decades has received many renovations to the interior, exterior,
air comfort systems and sound systems. The hall was named in
honor of Barbara Pfeiffer by her sons, Henry and G. A. Pfeiffer,
who donated the most funding for the hall. Some of the
magnificent performances held there include; Sarah Vowell, Dean
Martin and friends, the Nutcracker, Dr. Cornel West, River North
Chicago Dance Company, Junie B. Jones, Gospel Extravaganza,
Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, Pippin, the Fab Four Beatles
Tribute, Toying with Science and Boyz II Men.
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Brookfield Zoo
The Brookfield Zoo is
located just outside of Chicago, Illinois and sits on over 216
acres of wonderful landscape, and is home to 450 species of
animals. It is also called the Chicago Zoological Park, and
opened on July 1, 1934. The zoo gained recognition quickly since
it used moats and ditches rather than cages to contain their
animals, and keep visitors a safe distance away. It was the
first to show giant pandas, which included Su-Lin, who has been
taxidermied and now is exhibited in the Field Museum of Natural
History in Chicago. The zoo constructed the first indoor dolphin
display in 1960, and in 1980 created Tropic World, the first
indoor rain forest and the biggest indoor zoo exhibit in the
world. One of the most famous animal held here was Ziggy, a 6.5
ton bull elephant that attacked its trainer in 1941, and was
confined to his indoor enclosure for 30 years. In the 1960s and
70s, he gained a cult following in Chicago and its surrounding
areas, and eventually released to the outside in 1970. Sadly
though, he fell into the moat surrounding his environment in
1975, and died 7 months after. One of the most recognized
residents is Binti Jua, a western lowland gorilla female, that
had a young boy fall into her enclosure in 1996, and she cradled
the lad bringing him to her trainers and creating international
attention. Cookie, a Major Mitchell's cockatoo, was one of the
first residents of the zoo in 1934, being a year old when given
to the zoo, but is off display for good now. The first captive
birth of a okapi was here. Over the past 10 years, the zoo has
had many upgrades, including the creation of Regenstein Wolf
Woods, sheltered group catering pavilions, the Hamill Family
Play Zoo, the butterfly tent and the biggest non-restored,
wooden, hand carved carousel in the nation. In 2010, the Great
Bear Wilderness will open, and many other habitats have been
reconfigured to immersion displays based on ecosystems instead
of clades. The Swamp, the Living Coast, Fragile Rain Forest, the
African savanna, Fragile Desert and Australia House.
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