The Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation (JDCF) and The Archaeological Conservancy (TAC) are thrilled to announce the recent acquisition of a new 40-acre preserve in Carroll County, IL. The purchase of ‘Thomson Bluffs’ marks the first time that JDCF will co-own a property with another organization in perpetuity. “It’s gotten more and more difficult in recent years to secure funding for new land protection projects,” says Jim Johannsen, JDCF Director of Land Conservation. “Partnering with an organization like TAC to co-buy and co-own property allows both groups to protect incredible places like this while minimizing expenses.”
Nestled high on a wooded bluff overlooking a floodplain, JDCF and TAC sought to acquire Thomson Bluffs to protect a series of Native American mounds constructed during the Middle to Late Woodland period (200 B.C.E. – 1000 C.E.). The twenty-three mounds located at the site were built by the ancestors of the Ho-Chunk, Ioway, Otoe-Missouria, and other indigenous peoples. The property is also home to a pristine hardwood forest that boasts an impressive array of native wildflowers and provides habitat for migratory songbirds along the Mississippi River corridor. The property is a rare example of where both high-quality natural resources and intact Indigenous cultural resources coincide.
The property sits above a ‘lost lake’, Sunfish Lake (also known as Doty Lake or Dyson’s Lake), a 1500-acre natural lake that once butted up against this preserve’s western boundary. Indigenous peoples and early Euro-American settlers looking down from the bluff’s edge would have seen a vast wetland complex of lake, marshes, sedge meadows, and wet prairies that were home to dozens of fish, turtle, frog, and wading bird species. Although the lake was drained by the county in the 1870s, swans, cranes, and other birds can still be found wading through the snowmelt in the ancient lake bed during the spring migration, searching for leftover corn from the fall harvest.
Not only is this preserve the first one to be co-owned by JDCF, it’s also the first time JDCF has protected land outside of Jo Daviess County. “Since we started this project, several people have asked, ‘Does this acquisition mean JDCF has to change its name?’” said JDCF Executive Director Steve Barg. “The answer to that question is definitely no.” Although this is JDCF’s first land preservation project located outside of the county, JDCF’s other two programs, education and land stewardship, have been operating through the greater region for a dozen years or more. “If we were going to protect land outside of our core area, we were going to need a really compelling reason to do so,” added Barg. “Anyone who experiences Thomson Bluffs will immediately understand why it needed to be protected.” Stay tuned for opportunities to visit this special place in 2025.
