Regular Open Period

Woodworth Prairie is open to the public 7 days a week from 1 June until the beginning of UICs fall semester (21 -28 August). The hours are 10 AM to 3 PM. When open there is a guide available, but individuals are welcome to walk around without the guide.

The prairie is fenced and there is no access when Woodworth is not open. There is a ramp for wheelchair access to building and patio.

Special Events

Woodworth Prairie welcomes inquiries from groups that wish to visit the prairie during periods that we are not regularly open. Contact the Director by email or mail.
Department of Bio Sci mc066
845 W. Taylor St.
Chicago IL 60607

JWP is occassionally a site for National Public Lands Day in late September.

UIC Development Office has a 15 minute DVD which shows prairie through seasons (see Helping)

Location and Directions

Located in the Village of Glenview in Maine Township, James Woodworth Prairie is on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue (IL 21) about half a mile north of Golf Road (IL58). For driving directions from the web use 9831 N Milwaukee.

From Chicago take I90/I94 (Kennedy) to the Edens (I94). Exit at Dempster West and continue a few miles west to Milwaukee Avenue (IL 21). Go north on Milwaukee Avenue a couple of miles. The entrance gate is on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue. 

There is a parking lot within the fence that can hold as many as a dozen vehicles. There is no access from Greenwood Ave.

What you might see! You have to visit often to see it all.

In prairie: What you can see changes depending on the season of your visit. Before the prairie is open to the public the killdeer is nesting and there is a display of flowers in early and late May. In June spiderwort and pasture rose share the prairie with nesting redwings. Be careful, the redwings can be quite aggressive. The prairie cicada (left) is only out singing from June 15 to the 4th of July. The prairie lily and Michigan lily add color to the white of wild quinine about the beginning of July. The compass plant is the first of the abundant Silphiums to bloom. Their yellow dominates the prairie until September. About the first of August the marsh and prairie blazing star (photo by Don Gustafson) are beautiful. In September the yellows of the Silphiums disappear and the lavender colored smooth aster provides lots of color and the rare prairie gentian has a rich blue.

In building: There are display cases with arrowheads and stone tools, skulls, a diorama of abobe and below ground animal activity, floral blooming sequence pictures (blackboard tells what is blooming at present), pictures of planting the garden, insects (click for list of insects in display case) and crayfish specimens, and illustrations of early pioneers and settlers.