Bay Creek

Bay Creek occupies 120 acres of hilly terrain in the lowland section of Shawnee National Forest, where Little Bay Creek and its headwaters drain northward through Caney Branch into the larger Bay Creek watershed. The landscape is defined by its water features: Burden Falls, Bell Smith Springs, and Watkins Ford at 380 feet elevation create a high-gradient large stream system that has carved sandstone bluffs and cliff communities into the hillsides. Water moves rapidly through this drainage, originating in the upland forests and concentrating in narrow valleys where it has exposed the underlying geology and created distinct riparian conditions.

Three forest community types occupy the slopes and ridges. Dry Upland Forest dominates the exposed ridgelines and south-facing slopes, where white oak (Quercus alba), eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), and blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) form an open canopy above sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum) and prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa). Mesic Upland Forest occupies the north-facing slopes and valleys with greater moisture retention, supporting a denser canopy and richer understory. Dry-Mesic Upland Forest transitions between these conditions. Along the creek itself, the Sandstone Cliff Community supports specialized plants adapted to seepage and spray: Appalachian filmy fern (Vandenboschia boschiana), rose turtlehead (Chelone speciosa), vulnerable (IUCN), and French's Shooting Star (Primula frenchii), vulnerable (IUCN), grow in the moist microsites created by groundwater discharge. Eastern leatherwood (Dirca palustris) and river cane (Arundinaria gigantea) occupy the riparian zone where seasonal flooding occurs.

The stream itself supports a distinct aquatic community. Longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) inhabit the clear, rocky pools, while the federally endangered salamander mussel (Simpsonaias ambigua), proposed for federal endangered status, filters organic matter from the water column. Three federally endangered bat species—gray bat (Myotis grisescens), Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), and northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis)—forage over the water and roost in the surrounding forest canopy and cliff faces. The proposed threatened monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) moves through the area seasonally, using native plants as larval hosts. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) browse the understory, while bobcat (Lynx rufus) and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopava) hunt across the forest floor.

Walking from the ridgeline downslope toward Bay Creek, the forest transitions noticeably. The open, sparse canopy of the dry upland gives way to denser shade as elevation drops and moisture increases. The understory shifts from low shrubs and exposed rock to a thicker layer of ferns and herbaceous plants. As you approach the creek, the sound of water intensifies, and the air becomes cooler and more humid. The sandstone bluffs rise above the streambed, their faces seeping groundwater that supports the specialized cliff community plants. The creek itself runs clear and fast over rocky substrate, its high gradient visible in the white water at Burden Falls and the swift current at Watkins Ford. Moving through this landscape, you experience the compression of multiple forest types into a small area—a consequence of the steep topography and the creek's influence on local moisture and temperature.

Indigenous peoples of the Illinois Confederacy—including the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa—inhabited this region before ceding these lands to the U.S. government through treaties signed in 1803 and 1818. Other tribes known to have lived in or used southern Illinois included the Shawnee, Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Kickapoo, and Piankashaw. Mississippian culture flourished in the immediate vicinity of Bay Creek between approximately 1000 and 1550 AD. The Bay Creek site (11Pp52) contains documented rock art from this period. Mississippian inhabitants constructed stone forts—walls of stacked sandstone boulders on high bluffs—and buried their dead in stone box graves lined with sandstone slabs, accompanied by tools, pottery, and food for the afterlife. During the Trail of Tears (1838–1839), thousands of Cherokee people traveled through and camped in southern Illinois, including areas near Bay Creek, while awaiting passage across the frozen Mississippi River.

Between the early nineteenth century and the 1930s, European-American settlers transformed the landscape through agricultural clearing and timber harvest. Pioneers arriving from the Southeast established homesteads, including several of the oldest white settlements in the region, whose foundations remain visible today. By the early twentieth century, nearly all original old-growth timber had been removed through repeated logging cycles. Farmers in the broader Shawnee region developed small coal mines for cash income, though large-scale mining operations remained in adjacent territories. By the 1930s, approximately 100 years of farming and severe erosion had exhausted the soil, leading to widespread farm abandonment. Scattered homestead foundations, fruit trees from former orchards, and family cemeteries mark the sites of pre-1930s occupation.

The Shawnee National Forest was established through federal land acquisition authorized by the Weeks Act of 1911 and supported by the Clarke-McNary Act of 1924, which enabled the government to purchase private land for streamflow protection and timber production. Initial purchase authorization in August 1933 designated an approved purchase area of approximately 600,000 acres, though only about 180,000 acres had been acquired by the time of formal proclamation. On September 6, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Presidential Proclamation 2357, officially establishing the Shawnee National Forest. The proclamation cited additional congressional authority, including the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, and the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act of 1937. Federal condemnation in 1936 acquired the marginal farmland due to soil exhaustion and extreme erosion. The U.S. Forest Service subsequently attempted reforestation by planting conifer seedlings; many did not survive, but pine plantations remain visible today interspersed with naturally regenerated hardwoods. During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps was active in the surrounding Shawnee Hills, responsible for early reforestation and infrastructure development.

The Bay Creek roadless area is protected under the Illinois Wilderness Act of 1990, which created seven wilderness areas within the Shawnee National Forest and permanently prohibited future logging, mining, and motorized transport. The 120-acre Bay Creek area is further protected as an Inventoried Roadless Area under the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The abandoned townsite of Watkins Ford, located on the southwestern edge of the Bay Creek area where Bay Creek flows toward Bell Smith Springs, represents a final vestige of the region's nineteenth-century settlement period. Several abandoned roads within or bordering the wilderness were closed to motorized vehicles following the area's designation as protected land.

Vital Resources Protected

Headwater Stream Integrity and Aquatic Connectivity

Bay Creek and its tributaries—Little Bay Creek and Caney Branch—originate within this 120-acre roadless area, making it a critical source of cold, sediment-free water for the downstream Bay Creek Watershed. The high-gradient stream channel and associated riparian forest create spawning and rearing habitat for federally endangered species including the salamander mussel (Simpsonaias ambigua, proposed endangered), which depends on stable stream substrates and consistent water quality. Road construction in headwater areas introduces chronic sedimentation that smothers spawning gravels and fills the interstitial spaces where mussel larvae develop, effectively eliminating recruitment across the entire downstream population.

Bat Hibernacula and Foraging Habitat Network

The sandstone bluffs, caves, and cliff communities within Bay Creek provide critical hibernation sites and foraging corridors for three federally endangered bat species: gray bat (Myotis grisescens), Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), and northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), as well as the proposed endangered tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus). These species forage across the unfragmented forest canopy of the roadless area's dry, mesic, and dry-mesic upland forests, where insect populations remain intact. Road construction fragments this foraging landscape, forcing bats to cross open areas where they are vulnerable to predation and vehicle strikes, and the loss of continuous canopy reduces the insect prey base that these species depend on for survival during their active season.

Rare Plant Refugia in Sandstone Communities

The sandstone cliff and bluff communities support vulnerable plant species including French's Shooting Star (Primula frenchii) and Shiny False Indigo (Amorpha nitens), which occupy narrow ecological niches on exposed rock faces and seepage areas. These species are already stressed by invasive woody competitors and exotic plants spreading through disturbed corridors. The roadless condition prevents the creation of new disturbance corridors that would accelerate invasive species establishment and edge effects, which would outcompete these rare plants from their limited habitat.

Unfragmented Forest Canopy for Migratory Species

The continuous dry upland and mesic upland forest provides interior forest habitat for the proposed threatened monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and other migratory species that require large, unbroken patches of native vegetation. The successional conifer forest within the area offers structural complexity that supports diverse understory plants and insects. Road construction creates edge effects—increased light, temperature fluctuations, and invasive species penetration—that degrade the quality of interior forest habitat and disrupt the plant communities that monarchs and other species depend on during migration.

Threats from Road Construction

Sedimentation and Stream Temperature Increase from Canopy Removal

Road construction requires removal of riparian forest canopy along Bay Creek and its tributaries to accommodate cut slopes, fill, and drainage infrastructure. Loss of this canopy increases water temperature by reducing shade, while excavation of cut slopes introduces chronic sedimentation into the stream channel. These two mechanisms together degrade habitat for the salamander mussel and other aquatic species: elevated temperatures stress cold-water specialists, while suspended sediment and deposited fine materials smother the clean gravel and cobble substrates where mussels filter-feed and reproduce. The Bay Creek Watershed already carries documented impairments in total suspended solids and dissolved oxygen; road-induced sedimentation would worsen these conditions across the entire downstream system.

Habitat Fragmentation and Bat Mortality

Road construction through the sandstone bluff landscape fragments the continuous forest canopy that bats use as a navigation and foraging corridor between hibernacula in the cliffs and feeding areas in the upland forest. The resulting linear clearing creates a barrier that forces federally endangered gray bats, Indiana bats, and northern long-eared bats to cross open space, increasing vulnerability to predation and vehicle strikes. Additionally, the loss of canopy connectivity reduces insect abundance in the fragmented patches, lowering the caloric intake available to these species during their critical pre-hibernation feeding period when they must accumulate fat reserves for winter survival.

Invasive Species Establishment Along Road Corridors

Road construction creates a disturbed linear corridor—exposed soil, compacted edges, and altered hydrology—that serves as an invasion pathway for aggressive exotic plants already documented in the vicinity: Amur honeysuckle, Japanese stiltgrass, Oriental bittersweet, and Johnson grass. These species spread rapidly from road edges into adjacent forest, outcompeting native understory plants and reducing the diversity of native vegetation that supports monarch butterfly caterpillars and other herbivorous insects. The road corridor also facilitates the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer, which has already caused significant ash mortality in Illinois; road maintenance and vehicle traffic accelerate pest dispersal into previously uninfected riparian forest, further degrading the structural complexity of the stream-side canopy.

Hydrological Disruption and Rare Plant Habitat Loss

Road construction requires fill material, drainage ditches, and culverts that alter the natural flow of seepage water through sandstone bluffs and cliff communities. These seepage areas support vulnerable species like French's Shooting Star and Shiny False Indigo, which depend on consistent moisture and specific soil chemistry. Disruption of seepage hydrology—either through drainage or altered water routing—eliminates the precise conditions these rare plants require, while the disturbed soil and exposed edges created by road work provide entry points for invasive woody competitors that already threaten these species. Once hydrological function is disrupted in these narrow habitat zones, restoration is extremely difficult because the underlying geology cannot be easily reconstructed.

Bay Creek spans 120 acres of hilly lowland terrain within the Shawnee National Forest, anchored by the creek itself, Burden Falls, Bell Smith Springs, and sandstone bluffs. The area's roadless condition supports backcountry hiking, hunting, fishing, and photography in an unfragmented landscape where trails remain primitive and water quality stays high.

Hiking and Horseback Riding

Access the Bay Creek Wilderness via the Burden Falls Trailhead on McCormick Road or from Ozark Road, approximately 1/8 mile southwest of the McCormick/Burden Falls Road intersection. Trail 499 and Trail 499M form a 7–10 mile loop through hardwood forest and pine plantations, used by both hikers and equestrians. The River to River Trail (marked with white diamonds bearing a blue "i") passes through the area, connecting Bay Creek to the Burden Falls Wilderness to the west and Lusk Creek Wilderness to the east. Trail 030 and Trail 032 follow Bay Creek along the Wild and Scenic River Study Corridor. Trails are moderate to difficult due to rolling terrain and seasonal mud; expect overgrown sections during summer. Stock use is prohibited December 1 through March 31. Groups are limited to 10 people. Mountain biking and motorized vehicles are prohibited. Hazards include Copperheads, Timber Rattlesnakes, and ticks; carry water.

Hunting

White-tailed deer and wild turkey are the primary game species in Bay Creek Wilderness. Hunters must obtain permits from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in advance. Hunting is prohibited within 150 yards of buildings, campsites, or developed recreation sites. Only portable tree stands are allowed; permanent stands are prohibited. Access the area from the Burden Falls Trailhead or from Ozark Road. The Forest Service maintains wildlife openings through mowing, disking, and burning, creating edge habitat in the central hardwood ecosystem. Group size is limited to 10 people. All harvests must be reported via the IDNR toll-free check-in system (866-IL-CHECK). Motorized vehicles are prohibited off Forest development roads.

Fishing

Bay Creek supports Longear Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, and Channel Catfish in clear, spring-fed water. The creek is a candidate for the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Access for fishing is available from the Burden Falls Trailhead or from Ozark Road near Watkins Ford (380 feet elevation). Fishing is a walk-in activity due to hilly terrain and lack of developed facilities. Anglers must follow Illinois Department of Natural Resources regulations and possess a valid state fishing license. The creek's high water quality and seclusion make it an overlooked opportunity; the challenge lies in terrain rather than fish size. Nearby Bay Creek Lake (Millstone Lake), a 96-acre spring-fed impoundment north of State Highway 147, is accessible via gravel roads and requires a short portage for canoes or kayaks.

Paddling

Bay Creek Lake (Millstone Lake) is the primary paddling destination, accessible via gravel and dirt roads north of State Highway 147 near Simpson with a short portage required. Bay Creek itself is paddleable only during higher water periods; summer flow frequently falls below 0.5 cubic feet per second, leaving long sections dry beneath gravel. Flash flooding is a serious hazard; do not descend to the creek if flood risk exists. Non-motorized boating (canoeing and kayaking) is permitted on the lake.

Photography

The area offers multiple scenic subjects. Sentry Bluff Trail (Blue Trail) at Bell Smith Springs provides spectacular overlooks of Bay Creek from exposed sandstone cliffs. Natural Bridge Trail (Yellow Trail) offers panoramic views from a 30-foot natural bridge arching over the canyon. Boulder Falls at Bell Smith Springs is among the region's most photographed waterfalls; during wet conditions, a waterfall flows through the Natural Bridge opening. Jumping Spring is a deep spring pool with a bluff-top jumping point. Spring wildflowers including Dutchman's Breeches and Purple Phlox bloom in mid-spring. Rare plants such as French's Shooting Star grow along cliff drip lines, and Bradley's Spleenwort grows on sandstone outcrops. Pileated Woodpeckers, Tanagers, Eastern Phoebes, and Vireos inhabit the canyon. The wilderness area offers darker skies than developed zones for night sky photography.

Why Roadlessness Matters Here

Bay Creek's recreation depends on its roadless condition. Trails remain primitive and lightly used, supporting backcountry hunting and fishing without road noise or fragmentation. The creek maintains high water quality as a Wild and Scenic River Study Corridor—a status that depends on undisturbed watersheds. Wildlife habitat remains unfragmented, supporting populations of game species and forest birds. Paddling on Bay Creek Lake and hiking to waterfalls and overlooks offer quiet access away from motorized use. Road construction would degrade all of these values: trails would become maintenance corridors, watershed quality would decline, habitat would fragment, and the quiet necessary for backcountry hunting and birding would disappear.