Greenbelt

Greenbelt sits atop the sub-continental divide, marked by Green Bay Road. Rain falling on the east side of Green Bay Road heads for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but rain falling on the west side heads for the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a fairly open landscape of oak groves, wetlands and prairie. Like most natural areas in this region, Greenbelt has felt the effect of 150 years of settlement. We’re nursing it back to health with great success. Once again you can find wildflowers such as shooting stars, blue-eyed grass and mayapples here.

An ancient path is central to much of Greenbelt's history. Today we call it Green Bay Road and it cuts the property in half. About 200 years ago, the trail was used by Native Americans looking for a high and dry passage through the area's lowlands. They were joined by fur traders in the late 1700s and replaced by soldiers and mail carriers traveling from Chicago to Green Bay (hence the road's name). When frontier surveyors arrived in Lake County in the 1830s, this was the only major road. 

One early resident of this land was Alfred Bennett, brother of Lake County's first African American settler, Amos Bennett. Born to freed slaves in 1805 in New York, Alfred came to Lake County when he was 42 and lived at his brother's home in Gurnee. Five years later he bought 40 acres on the preserve's east side for a farm. After just two years he moved to Michigan. James Dugdale was also born in 1805. He came here from Ireland and farmed land from about 1840 to 1870. Dudgale Road borders Greenbelt on the east. We began purchasing land at this site in 1971.