Robinson Park Map # 4: Mossville Road, Peoria, IL 61603
This wild, undeveloped 680-acre park was donated to the Peoria Park District in 1951 by L.E. and Erma Robinson in memory of their son Laurence, who loved to play and explore there as a child, and died in WWII. Narrow, informal paths lace the site, along with a substantial segment of the better-developed Illinois River Bluff Trail. For the ecologically-oriented visitor, the most intriguing component of Robinson Park is its 151-acre nature preserve, which consists of glacial drift hill prairies, and oak woodlands along the ridges and valleys. The preserve sits on two long, narrow ridges and steep valley slopes drained by Moon Creek. Several small glacial drift hill prairies occur on the south-facing slopes. Some of the prairie wildflowers found here include scurf pea, pale purple coneflower, purple prairie clover, yellow false foxglove, stiff tickseed, golden Alexanders, bird's foot violets, and snow trillium, all strewn throughout little bluestem and side-oats grama grasses which dominate the prairie habitat. The woodland habitat includes white oak, red oak, chinquapin oak, shagbark hickory, witch hazel, hazelnut, basswood, maple, and pawpaw. The spring-blooming wildflower show along the forest floor of these woodlands is spectacular.