Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
Peck Farm, a Merino sheep fortune that became 385 acres of prairie
1844
Geneva, Illinois
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Eli Peck came out from Vermont and paid 220 dollars for 80 acres here in 1844, then kept buying until the family held about 1,600 acres by the time he died in 1892. Purebred Merino sheep made most of the money, starting with a flock of 75 he bought in 1866. The ground was protected in the early 1990s rather than subdivided, and the Geneva Park District opened it to the public in 1998 with the old farmhouse, a butterfly house and an observation deck built into the top of a grain silo.
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: approximate area
This place has its own thread on r/rawstates
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