Forest preserves offer a natural escape in Lake County, but park districts provide the main source for outdoor recreation for most Lake County residents.

When it comes time to get out and move, park districts have the ball fields, playgrounds and swimming pools.

But long before park districts offered such amenities, Highland Park created the first park district in Lake County, a pioneering endeavor that was also one of the first in Illinois.

The Highland Park East Park District was founded in 1909 for many of the same reasons that drive open space movements today.

Residents were feeling the crunch of rapid growth in their city and wanted more land as a buffer and more parks to enjoy.

Ravine Drive Beach on the shores of Lake Michigan became the first acquisition after voters approved a referendum creating the district.

Most of the other 21 Lake County park districts were not created until at least the 1940s and '50s.

"They were way ahead of their time when they wanted to preserve lakefront property," said Connie Newport, executive director of what is now the Park District of Highland Park.

"When you read the old minutes, they are constantly talking about the preservation of open space," Newport said. "It's amazing because a lot of park districts today are faced with being landlocked."

Today the Park District of Highland Park manages more than 600 acres, double the amount of per-capita park land recommended by the National Recreation and Park Association for Highland Park's population of 30,000.

The district includes a 100-acre nature preserve and the Sunset Valley Golf Course, which became one of the state's first public golf courses when the district bought it 80 years ago.

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