Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center

Take a walk, jog with your dog, ride your bike or cross-country ski at Fullersburg Woods Nature Education at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve in Oak Brook. Whether you prefer to study wildlife through a picture window or head out for your own excursion with a nature backpack, the education center offers something for every nature lover.   

Nature Education Center

The nature education center provides an engaging, interactive introduction to the local environment. There, visitors can explore the world of Salt Creek and its inhabitants and learn how to identify common birds and animal tracks. They can get up close and personal with the 13,000-year-old skeleton of a woolly mammoth or use microscopes and spotting scopes to examine creatures that call DuPage County home today. Visitors can also find answers to nature-related questions from the center’s staff of expert naturalists, who love talking about native plants and animals almost as much as they love learning about nature themselves!

Modern restrooms, a drinking fountain, and information on other DuPage County forest preserves complement the visitor center’s exhibits.

Driving Directions

Nature Programs 

Scheduled programs for individuals, families and groups focus on natural resources and feature activities from tapping maple trees, identifying spring wildflowers to tracking resident and migrant wildlife.

During the summer, children ages 4 – 12 learn about nature art, camping and habitats through half-day camps at Camp FBW. 

For Teachers and Students

Each year more than 35,000 school children visit Fullersburg Woods Nature Education Center to learn about the local natural environment and how they can improve conditions for future generations. In fact, the center offers several field-trip and outreach programs, which meet state curriculum standards.

The center also offers professional-development programs for educators. For more information, visit our our school programs and teacher resources page  or call 630-850-8110.

For Scout Leaders and Scouts

Learn more about opportunities for Scouts and other youth groups at our Scout programs page.

Graue Mill and Museum & Frederick Graue House

Located in the southern corner of Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve, Graue Mill and Museum is one of the area’s remaining authenticated Underground Railroad “stations” and the only operating waterwheel gristmill in Illinois. Programs on milling, spinning and weaving illustrate life between 1850 and 1890 and the effect mills had on the area’s culture. The restored Frederick Graue House, the 1850s Victorian home of the Graue family, is a perfect venue for small private functions.

Both facilities are owned by the Forest Preserve District and operated by the nonprofit DuPage Graue Mill Corporation. The mill is open mid-April to mid-November. House rental information is available by request. For details, visit Graue Mill (link) or contact 630-920-9720 or info@grauemill.org. 

Ben Fuller House

The area that is now Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve emerged in 1833 as one of the first settlements along Salt Creek. Benjamin Fuller platted much of the land along the waterway and built his home, which now stands on the east side of York Road, sometime near 1840.