10,000 years ago, this spot stood beneath a mile of glacial ice. Following the retreat of the glacier, the vegetation that evolved became what we now know as the tallgrass prairie. Prairie plants are very specialized with root systems as deep as 18’ into the soil to help them survive winter cold, summer heat and drought and intense wildfires that would sweep across the tallgrass prairie region that once stretched from Nebraska to Indiana. What we call the Chicago Wilderness is in the heart of the tallgrass region featuring little appreciated, but globally significant and rare flora and fauna including the last remnants of prairie, rare ravine habitats, woodlands, wetlands and the globally threatened Savanna.