Clear Springs Wilderness
wilderness area in Jackson County, Illinois, USA
The Clear Springs Wilderness is a 4,730-acre (19.1 km2) parcel of land listed as a Wilderness Area of the United States. Adjacent to it is the LaRue-Pine Hills Research Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark noted for a large and diverse population of snakes.
The wilderness is located within the Shawnee National Forest in southwestern Jackson County and northwestern Union County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The nearest town of any size is Wolf Lake, Illinois.
Second-growth wilderness
The steep hills of the Clear Springs Wilderness are drained by many limestone springs, including Clear Springs, which drains into Hutchins Creek and then into Clear Creek.
As with other wilderness areas within Shawnee National Forest, the Clear Springs Wilderness is made up of second-growth forested areas that were used, until the land acquisitions of the 1930s, as agriculture land. The steep eastern bluffs over the Big Muddy River were not good ground for agriculture. Most of the soil that used to be here has eroded into the Big Muddy's bed. Firewood was cut here, and farmers may have tried to use the region's well-watered, temperate climate for livestock grazing. Shawnee National Forest was created in 1939, and in 1990, the Illinois Wilderness Act set aside seven separate parcels of land within this National Forest as relatively small wilderness areas.
The public source identifies “Clear Springs Wilderness” as wilderness area in Jackson County, Illinois, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Clear, Springs and Wilderness.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Clear Springs Wilderness”, the useful work is to connect “wilderness area in Jackson County, Illinois, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5130784. Authority coordinates are 37.583, -89.417. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 1990.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Clear Springs Wilderness”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Clear Springs Wilderness primary sources, Clear Springs Wilderness archive and Clear research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Clear Springs Wilderness”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Clear Springs Wilderness” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.