Dolton Prairie

On June 18, 2010, the Forest Preserve District of Cook County closed on the purchase of the 24-acre Dolton Avenue Prairie from its long-time owner, Ashland Chemical Company, thus ensuring protection in perpetuity for the prairie. Dolton Avenue Prairie is located on the northwest corner of Dolton Ave. and Paxton Ave. in Calumet City, just south of Ashland’s Calumet City facility. Ashland’s choice to keep the area undeveloped helped to protect a remnant of the original – now very rare – pre-settlement wet prairie landscape that was once common in the Calumet region. In the 1970s, the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory (INAI) designated the prairie as a high quality natural area, and the FPD’s 1994 Land Acquisition Study identified the site as a high quality area in need of protection.