Fox Hollow

The 67-acre Fox Hollow Forest Preserve in Darien consists primarily of meadows, upland forests, wetlands and a pond.

Natural Scene

Fox Hollow is home to several types of birds, including state-endangered osprey and black-crowned night-herons. Several nest at the forest preserve, too, such as great blue herons, great horned owls and brown thrashers. Ecologists have recorded green frogs, beavers, coyotes, garter snakes and midland painted turtles here as well.

Driving Directions

Fox Hollow is on Lemont Road south of 75th Street and north of Plainfield Road. It does not have a parking lot.

History

In presettlement times, this area was swampy and dry prairie. Most of the area was under cultivation after settlement, bisected by a large wetland area and a farmstead.

Land purchases began in the late 1980s, when the forest preserve was named Darien-Chestnut, and continued through 2010. It was renamed Fox Hollow in the late 1990s.