Woods named in honor of early settler

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Lake County Forest Preserves. For half a century, the Forest Preserve District has been Lake County's principal guardian of open space, natural areas, and educational and cultural resources.

Among these treasures is Captain Daniel Wright Woods near Mettawa in Vernon Township. The 506-acre preserve was purchased in 1963 for its high quality natural areas and named for Lake County's first nonnative settler.

Daniel Wright was born in Rutland, Va., in 1778. He was a farmer and served in the War of 1812 as a captain. In 1814, he moved his family to Ohio, and in 1832 began to explore land in Illinois. Rumors of good, cheap farm land led Wright to Fort Dearborn (later known as Chicago), where trappers told him of good hunting along the Des Plaines River near what would become Half Day.

According to Wright, when he arrived in the area in June, 1833, tribes of Potawatomi were settled there. The Potawatomi helped him build his first log cabin. Though the homestead was located south of today's Wright Woods, Wright more than likely traversed the land that would bear his name.

With the cabin built, Wright sent a letter from Chicago to his wife in Ohio, urging his family to join him. Ruth Todd Wright and their seven children came by way of oxen-pulled wagon.

Sadly, Ruth Todd and their youngest son, Daniel, became ill, possibly from the heat, rain and exhaustion of the trip, and both died within a short time of arriving at the new homestead.

In fall 1833, a prairie fire swept through the area burning Wright's hay crop. Wright recalled many years later, "Myself, family and stock found shelter under the bank of the river. If my home had not been green timber it would have burned up."

To keep his cattle alive over the winter, Wright gathered "frosted grass" from the prairie and let the cattle graze through the forest lands.

Wright farmed the land along the Des Plaines River until his death in 1873.

Diana Dretske, author of "Lake County, Illinois: An Illustrated History" is the collections coordinator for the Lake County Discovery Museum. The Lake County Discovery Museum, a department of the Lake County Forest Preserves, is an award-winning regional history museum on Route 176, west of Fairfield Road near Wauconda. The museum is open from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Call (847) 968-3400 for information.