Dunning Read Conservation Area

«For many generations of Chicago children, bad behavior came to a halt with a stern warning: „Be careful, or you’re going to Dunning.“ The prospect sent shivers down the spines of youngsters, who regarded it as the most dreaded place imaginable.»
— Perry Duis, Challenging Chicago.
The sprawling stretch of land north of Irving Park and west of Oak Park is one of the most storied, but presently forgotten, sites in Chicago. Opening in 1854 as a «poor farm,» it initially served people who had fallen on hard times. By 1870 an Insane Department was added to the site– on the premise that keeping the mentally disturbed isolated and away from the city’s stress would be beneficial. Over time, the site which also featured sprawling expanses of cemeteries for over 38,000 bodies, became chronically overcrowded. Patients were abused and neglected, their food full of weevils. «You could think of this place as the prototypical evil dark asylum of literature,» Joseph J. Mehr notes in his book, «An Illustrated History of Illinois Public Mental Health Services.»
Today, the fringes of the site are covered by box stores and residential development. But the stretch by the northeast intersection of Irving Park and Oak Park is one of the most sublime and tranquil settings in Chicago, containing some ancient remnant wetlands. This place is so underutilized that you’re just as likely to come across a zombie corpse as a member of the living. But I’ve seen a garter snake, heard tell of a coyote sighting, and once almost stepped on a possum.
If you walk past the medical center to the south you can find an expanse of woodchip trails, mostly unmarked, which may mysteriously lead you *behind* a No Trespassing sign at the neighboring Streets and Sanitation complex.
This park is neither part of the Park District nor the Forest Preserve. If you want to be a part of restoring the area, Friends of the Parks hosts volunteer days every Thursday and every Second Saturday from March through November.

For an undeveloped plot of land in the city of Chicago that is neither a park nor a forest preserve; for a chunk of land that surrounds and exists in the shadows of a mental health facility; for a place where no bells nor whistles ring nor blow — this is a beautiful place, where you can rest your mind and let your imagination take over.
The Dunning Read Conservation Area almost wasn’t what it is today. Once farmland, it was abandoned and allowed to become overgrown until the early 2000s, when Home Depot was ready and willing to bulldoze the whole thing and drop one of their ginormous stores right there. After loud protests by local citizens, who wished for the area to remain undeveloped, several parks advocacy and environmental organizations stepped up and fought to keep this land as it was. The people won, and since the last few years or so the area has been open to the public. Walking paths have been installed, ecological restoration efforts are underway, and special events are held here from time to time. I came here last weekend and saw thousands of grasshoppers in the prairie. There are zero grasshoppers in the surrounding area and the nearest grasshoppers are in the forest preserves, several miles away. It is also an awesome spot if you are a birder — I’m not a bird guy but I’ve seen birds here that I don’t see on a regular basis. Many different kinds!
While doing research, I found a Facebook page for this conservation area. On it are photos and a schedule for upcoming events. Don’t look past this place — it is serene and relatively quiet, and for a few minutes you can get lost in the sights and sounds long enough to forget you are practically sandwiched in between shopping malls.