Northwest Illinois

Between Freeport, Illinois and the Wisconsin State Line

Trail Highlights

• 12.85 miles from Wes Block Trail Access to Wisconsin state line where it connects to the Badger Trail, a 40 mile trail to Madison, Wisconsin. Note that portions of the Badger Trail are still under construction, and that Wisconsin charges a trail admission fee
• 10 foot wide, level grade, crushed limestone surface
• 21 bridges
• Bordered by the Pecatonica River, Richland Creek and Cedar Creek
• Travels past natural wetlands, old oak woods, grassland prairies, exposed rock embankments, several small communities and active farms
• Trail access with parking, shelters, and restrooms:
  • Wes Block Trail Access on Fairview Road, south of U.S. Highway 20, approximately two miles west of the Illinois Highway 26 intersection north of Freeport
  • Richland Creek Trailhead on High Street, Orangeville, east of Illinois Highway 26
  • Red Oak, Red Oak Road (Parking Only)
  • Buena Vista, McConnell Road (Parking and Picnic Table)
• Part of the Grand Illinois Trail that traverses northern Illinois from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River

The Jane Addams Recreation Trail in Northwest Illinois is a journey through time...rich with stories.

Each journey on the trail is a new story and a new experience with the ever-changing seasonal plant life and the varied animals and birds – from the orange flash of an oriole to the white tail of a bounding deer; from the fiery crimson of the sumac to the tender green fiddleheads of the ferns in spring.

The rock layers and topographic features exposed along the trail tell the story of an environment gradually changing from an ancient shallow sea where layers of sea shell fragments and debris accumulated to form the dolomite bedrock, to the rushing glacial stream that carved our valleys.

The trail tells the story of man’s history as well, from the Native Americans, including the Winnebago Tribe who raised crops in the rich bottomland soil and fished and traveled the waterways, to the pioneer families who prospered from this fertile land, to the entrepreneurs who built the frontier’s first factories, the mills, around which villages and cities grew.

The trail’s story continues from the early stagecoaches to the railroads which created a transportation hub in this area, but which were in turn eclipsed by the automobile and our grid of improved streets and highways, to today...

The path, which has seen so much history, has been restored as a source of beauty, nature, exercise and fun.

We invite you to create your own stories as you discover the Jane Addams Trail.