PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2023

Roberta English is the chief executive officer at Wildlife Prairie Park

THE CROWN JEWEL As the Foundation is dissolved, Wild life Prairie Park will be the recipient of its final largess. Opened in 1978, Wildlife Prairie Park was started by Bill and Hazel Rutherford, not the Forest Park Foundation, said Roberta English, the park’s CEO. “Bill Rutherford traveled all over the world, bringing back ideas to make Wildlife Prairie Park,” said English. “He wanted a place that featured a lot of the native animals to this area. We do that, by and large.” Rutherford wanted a place where children could learn about their natural surroundings, said English. “He really believed that getting chil dren here was the key and getting them to experience something they never got to experience before would create the indelible memories that would make them care about conservation … the animals … the environment,” she said. “He believed that would make them better people.” The 1,800-acre park sits on formerly strip-mined land. Since 2013, Wildlife has been owned and operated by the Friends of Wildlife Prairie Park. The Friends of Wildlife Prairie Park has become the owner of a small office building and adjacent land formerly owned by FPF in Peoria Heights. The park also will receive the Foundation’s last dollars, expected to be about $2 million, as an endowment, said Tomlin. All in all, “Forest Park Foundation changed the landscape of our communi ty. Their commitment to fostering access to open space defines who we are today,” said Emily Cahill, executive director of the Peoria Park District. “The legacy the Foundation leaves will be felt by genera tions to come. We are truly grateful for their stewardship and generosity.”

walk in and older persons will not have anything green and pleasant to look at.” In 1966 at a Peoria Riverfront Devel opment Committee meeting, Ruther ford called the riverfront a disgrace. “Try to dream a little bit as to what the riverfront improvement will mean to the future,” he said. The Foundation then saved the former Rock Island Railroad Depot on the riverfront from being demolished for a Sears parking lot, purchasing the depot and the land down to the river’s edge for $115,000. From 1981 to 2000, the old depot housed The River Station restaurant and is now home to Martini’s and the Blue Duck BBQ Tavern. Sometimes the Foundation was a con duit, whereby landowners donated land, willed their property or estate, traded acreage or sold their land to serve future generations. The Foundation sometimes purchased the option on land that might be useful later. In turn, FPF would do nate the land to the State of Illinois or area park districts, with the Peoria Park District receiving the lion’s share. When land was available, Rutherford could be impatient about moving on it. In 1966, he urged the Peoria Park Board to speed up its acquisition process. The board president told Rutherford the staff workload prevented a quicker response. Rutherford responded two weeks later with a $25,000 donation expressly for hiring personnel to speed things up.

Among the Foundation’s donations of land over the years: • 1,000 acres adjacent to Jubilee State Park, to the state; • Robinson Park, between Peoria and Chillicothe, to the Peoria Park District; • Land to establish parks in the names of all three Foundation founders; • Safety Town, to the Peoria Park Dis trict; • The 28-mile Rock Island Railroad right-of-way, from Alta to Toulon, which would become the landmark Rock Island Trail after FPF “wrangled for 20 years before the trail was accepted as a state park, with 100 acres of adjoining farmland from the foundation for rest areas and camping,” Rutherford wrote; • $150,000 for renovations in Peoria Heights including creation of Tower Park, the construction of its water tank and observation deck, and a new Village Hall; • The Forest Park Nature Center, a nature preserve of more than 500 acres that will remain open to the public in perpetuity, preserving the land in its natural state under the auspices of the Peoria Park District. Meanwhile, the Foundation helped save Peoria City Hall from demolition after paying for architectural and engineering studies to convince the City Council to keep it.

Linda Smith Brown is a 37-year veteran of the newspaper industry, retiring as publisher of Times Newspapers in the Peoria area

90 NOVEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE