Oldest preserve expansion pushes acreage past 24,000 milestone

On March 27, the Forest Preserve acquired almost 106 acres on the southwest side of Messenger Woods Nature Preserve in Homer Glen. The acquisition is north of Bruce Road and east of Cedar Road.

“We’re very excited about this new addition to Messenger Woods,” said Juli Mason, the Forest Preserve’s director of conservation programs. “The property includes remnant woodlands that will expand the protected area of high-quality woodland habitat. As the existing agricultural fields are restored to native plant communities, we’ll be able to create a larger, more resilient buffer to protect the nature preserve.”

The acquisition will allow the Forest Preserve to eventually extend the Spring Creek Greenway Trail, connecting Hadley Valley Preserve and Messenger Marsh Preserve.

The first land purchase by the Forest Preserve Board in January 1930 was 124 acres at Messenger Woods. The District was created by referendum in 1926 and organized in 1927.

“Because Messenger Woods was one of the District’s earliest acquisitions in the 1930s, this feels like a full-circle moment,” Mason said. “It’s especially meaningful that this latest land purchase marks a major milestone, bringing the District’s protected lands to more than 24,000 acres.”

The recent acquisition cost $4.2 million and is part of the Forest Preserve’s 2025–2030 Capital Improvement Program, which set aside $25 million for land acquisition.

In 2025, the Forest Preserve added 495.27 acres to Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve in Crete Township (the District’s second-largest acquisition in its history), 241 acres to Kankakee Sands Preserve in Custer Township, and 40 acres to Riverview Farmstead Preserve in Plainfield.

The Forest Preserve’s owned, leased and managed land now totals 24,084 acres.

‘Ideal’ acquisition in 1930

In early 1930, the Joliet Evening Herald-News detailed the Forest Preserve Board’s actions prior to making its first purchase.

The board approved the acquisition of the Homer Township parcel and also land in Channahon Township, which would become McKinley Woods.

“The tract in Homer township, located four miles north of New Lenox, will be purchased from the Messenger estate,” the newspaper reported on Jan. 17, 1930. “It is heavily timbered and Spring Creek passes thru it. Members of the forestry board consider it ideal for a forest preserve.”

In an earlier article published Nov. 4, 1929, the forest preserve’s name was explained.

“One of the stipulations in the purchase of the property in Homer township provides that the county shall name the tract Messenger Woodlands, in memory of the late (Horace) Messenger, a pioneer settler of Homer township.”

This first acquisition was almost 143 acres at a cost of $17,851 — or $124 an acre.

As the board began buying land in Homer and Channahon townships, it spurred interest from other areas of the county.

“Mr. Hulbert said the board has been offered tracts in Crete, Troy, Wilton Center and Custer township,” the newspaper reported in the 1929 article. “He said the price ranged from $35 to $600 an acre.”