Ten Mile Creek State Fish & Wildlife Area

The Ten Mile Creek State Fish and Wildlife Area is located in southeastern Jefferson County and the western sections of Hamilton County. Access to the site can be gained from rural roads leading from Illinois Route 142 and Illinois Route 14. The site provides a wide range of outdoor recreation opportunities which include wildlife viewing, hiking, fishing, target shooting, hunting and trapping. The 5,820 acres comprising Ten Mile Creek were purchased in 1988, and approximately one third of the site was strip mined for coal. These areas, all within Jefferson County, have been reclaimed to varying degrees resulting in some areas being returned to flat agriculture land and others to steeply sloped areas with many ponds and lakes. The remainder of the site, which was not mined, is a mixture of fields and forest bisected by small streams.The site is divided into four management units, each consisting of a main area and smaller scattered tracts. Of these, the Eads Unit (1,550 acres) is located southwest of the town of Belle Rive, and over 80% of this unit has been mined, which has left a steep and rugged terrain containing many spoil ridges. Vegetation has been established to stabilize the soil and provide cover for wildlife. Next, the Belle Rive Unit (1,460 acres) is located east of Belle Rive, of which nearly 60% has been strip mined. However, reclamation efforts have resulted in a more even terrain including seven lakes. In addition, this unit is bisected by Auxier Creek, and the bottomland areas have not been mined.Of the management units located in Hamilton County, both contain similar terrain with a level to rolling topography covered by a mixture of farm fields and forest. The Dahlgren Unit (1,120 acres) lies south of the village of Dahlgren, and it is bisected by the Big Creek watershed. This unit contains both upland and bottomland forest with small ponds in various locations. The Goshen Trail Unit (1,690 acres) is located four miles west of McLeansboro and contains a portion of the Ten Mile Creek watershed.