A gem in Dupage County

Are you one of thousands of DuPage and neighboring county residents who enjoy the Illinois Prairie Path? Are you aware this splendid 62 mile recreational facility running throughout DuPage County even exists?

Beginning in Maywood on the east, the Path winds westward into Wheaton before branching both north to Elgin and south to Aurora, following the former rail line of the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin (The Roarin’ Elgin) interurban railway, which carried millions of passengers between Chicago and the western suburbs from 1902 to 1957.

In 1966, May Theilgaard Watts, a retired Morton Arboretum naturalist, almost singlehandedly willed the transformation of the abandoned rail bed into the magnificent Illinois Prairie Path.

The Roarin’ Elgin locomotives may be long gone but today all the motive power on their former haunts is human – walking, running or peddling – making DuPage residents healthier and happier. Check it out.