Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #325

Nacho’s on it! “Old well house located at the bottom of the south trails at Robinson Park in Mossville.” Nearby are two more foundations and another well pump. Anyone have any idea what this used to be?

I was actually told about this once before but I didn’t think I’d actually ever find it but a few weeks ago I decided to take a hike in Robinson Park, on Mossville Rd in Mossville, as I had never been there. I didn’t know which trail to take and I couldn’t find much information available other than a only generally helpful Peoria Park District map so I blindly took the south trail. Inside the park the trails are well kept and marked. I plan to go back and explore more.

Peoria Wilds.com describes the park this way:

Robinson Park consists of glacial drift hill prairies on steep south facing slopes with Oak woodlands along the ridges and valleys. 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. The woodlands include white oak, red oak, chinquapin oak, shagbark hickory, witch hazel, hazelnut, basswood, maple, and paw paw.

Robinson Park north of Mossville Rd. was willed to the Peoria Park District by Laurence Robinson, a Peoria architect in 1951 and was dedicated in June 1959 to the memory of Laurence Eugene Robinson Jr. who died in World War II. This portion of the park was known as the “Big Horn Farm” and was his boyhood home. At the dedication of Robinson Park in her son’s memory, Mrs. Robinson said, “It is my desire that it’s primitive beauty be retained and that it will forever offer an opportunity for young people to enjoy nature and the great out of doors.” Additional land has been added to Robinson Park on the south side of Mossville Rd.

Here are a few other photos I took on my short hike.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Peoria, Peoria Park District. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.