{"id":216806,"date":"2025-09-11T00:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216806\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T00:07:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:07:13","slug":"this-illinois-park-was-just-named-the-no-4-most-visited-state-park-in-the-u-s-and-it-has-a-dark-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/216806\/","title":{"rendered":"This Illinois park was just named the No. 4 most visited state park in the U.S.\u2014and it has a dark history"},"content":{"rendered":"

As\u00a0Chicago\u2019s\u00a0blazing hot days yield to breezy afternoons and leaves\u00a0begin their slow melt into fall\u2019s fiery colors,\u00a0Mother Nature is practically\u00a0pleading that you free yourself from the shackles of fluorescent light and spine\u00a0crushing office chairs\u2014it\u2019s time to\u00a0frolic in the\u00a0great outdoors. Suffice it to say, now is the perfect time to start scheming your next leaf peeping expedition<\/a> or all-day hiking excursion<\/a> at one of Chicagoland\u2019s many parks and arboretums. Before you take our mandate and run with it, we\u2019ve got one recommendation for you\u2014and it\u2019s backed by some major data.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a recent report<\/a> released by Google Maps, Starved Rock State Park<\/a> has been declared the\u00a0fourth most visited state park in the country. The ranking of this summer\u2019s most popular state parks\u2014honing in on the top 10 in the U.S.\u2014was based on direction requests made via Google Maps between Memorial Day 2025 and August 2025, along with user reviews.\u00a0As if you needed any more convincing: According to the State of Illinois<\/a>, Starved Rock was the most visited state park in the Prairie State last year, drawing 2.4 million visitors in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nPhotograph: Shannon Shreibak <\/p>\n

It\u2019s high time that Starved Rock gets its flowers\u2014the sprawling Oglesby, Illinois, park is a longtime local favorite, thanks to its sandstone canyons, jaw-dropping waterfalls, jutting cliffs and extensive trail system. Starved Rock is home to 13 miles of footpaths meandering around the Illinois River, with routes running the gamut of difficulty and elevation. For those who prefer to enjoy nature\u2019s bounty at a more leisurely pace, visitors can explore the grounds via trolley tours or boat rides<\/a>. For the full Starved Rock experience, spend the night at its namesake lodge<\/a>, which offers a smattering of quaint log cabins and boundless Midwestern hospitality.<\/p>\n

While Starved Rock is often mentioned in the same breath as beauty and grandeur, the park\u2019s\u00a0history bears its blemishes. Starved Rock became the subject of national attention in 1960, when three Chicago women\u2014Mildred Lindquist, Frances Murphy and Lillian Oetting\u2014were found brutally murdered in a small cave in one of the park\u2019s canyons.\u00a0The case received renewed public interest in 2021, when the three-part documentary series\u00a0The Murders at Starved Rock<\/a>, hit streaming services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As\u00a0Chicago\u2019s\u00a0blazing hot days yield to breezy afternoons and leaves\u00a0begin their slow melt into fall\u2019s fiery colors,\u00a0Mother Nature is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[11234,960,5386,1818,11235,1164],"class_list":{"0":"post-216806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-categories-travel","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-news-transport-travel","13":"tag-travel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115182754100892823","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}