“awesome star shaped lake”
Beautiful rolling hills and woods surround star-shaped Lake Murphysboro and provide a wonderful backdrop for boating, fishing, picnicking, camping and hiking. Located in Jackson County about 1 mile west of Murphysboro off Route 149, the 1,022-acre state park is the perfect place to enjoy the great outdoors. Archaeological evidence for both the Old Woodland and Paleolithic Native American cultures has been uncovered at the site. The Paleo people lived in small, temporary camps and were known as big game hunters. The Woodland culture left more evidence, since it was agricultural and known for large settlements. By the early 1800s, no Native American settlements existed in the immediate area.When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, the federal government gave Illinois three saline lands. One of them, located less than a mile southwest of the park, was leased to Dr. Conrad Will, who served in both the Illinois House and Senate in the early days of statehood. Dr. Will operated a salt works at the site, and the town of Brownsville grew up around it. The salt works closed in 1840, and all that remains of the town is the cemetery. Although the state of Illinois did not purchase the 1,022 acres that would become Lake Murphysboro State Park until 1948, interest in the area as a public recreational park began in the 1930s. Originally developed by the state’s Division of Fisheries, Lake Murphysboro State Park was transferred to the Division of Parks and Memorials in 1955. Today, the park is maintained by the Department of Natural Resources. Built in 1950 by the Division of Fisheries, the 145-acre lake is a tributary of Indian Creek and has a watershed of approximately 4,500 acres. The maximum water depth is 36 feet, and the lake’s 7.5 miles of shoreline are made up of rolling hills covered with a wide variety of trees. A 600-foot dam is located at the south end of the park. A smaller lake, appropriately called Little Lake, is located just north of Lake Murphysboro.Soon after its completion, Lake Murphysboro was stocked with breeder-size and yearling-size largemouth bass. In the fall of 1951, redear sunfish were introduced, followed by bluegill the next spring. Channel catfish are frequently stocked. To maintain a healthy fish population, submerged vegetation and water draw-downs are used to keep the number of small panfish down. Patches of native wild orchids may be found in the wooded areas of the park. Yellow lady’s slipper, showy, purple fringeless, twayblade, puttyroot, coralroot and ladies’ tresses are just some of the varieties to watch for. The variety of orchids makes it possible to find blooming plants throughout the year.The wooded hills include groves of majestic oak and hickory trees, as well as many other types of trees.
Reviews of Lake Murphysboro State Park
3 people have reviewed this location
Ratings Summary
Cell Coverage
Verizon 4G
Confirmed by 3 users | Last reported on September 07, 2023AT&T 4G
Confirmed by 1 users | Last reported on August 27, 2017Reviews
We stayed here for a few nights for the 2017 total eclipse, as this park was right in the center of the path. There are two entrances to the park... be sure to use the west one, labeled "Lake Access Road". There's no campground office, so we just checked in with the friendly camp host at the first site; no maps or other info are provided. The campground and roads are heavily wooded (very little sun) but we had no issues with branches hitting the motorhome. Sites are electric only, with some 50A and some 30A. Our site had 50A electric and worked great even though the park was 100% full and it was 90+ degrees out. The back-in sites along the lake are mostly for shorter rigs, though a few will fit bigger rigs. The pull-throughs in the center (like ours, site 32) were longer. Our 37' motorhome and tow car just fit, and our site was level. A 45' motorhome would fit if you parked your tow car in the overflow parking lot. There are two water spigots in the campground, but the one we were sent to by the camp host on our way in required about 50' of hose to reach. We filled our tank and then moved on to our site. The other spigot is right at the campground exit, so would have required doing another loop. There are no sewer connections, but the dump station on the way out was decent, though on a steep uphill slope. There are two pairs of vault toilets in the campground. There are showers a mile away at the park concession area, but we took a look and decided to take navy showers in the RV instead, since the showers were old, not very clean, and had no temperature control (push button and go). The park is dog friendly and the campground area is pretty good for dog walks, and our dog went for a short swim in the lake. Lots of fishing going on too. Verizon and AT&T both worked well. We'd stay here again for a few days if we need to return to the area.
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 4
Site Number: 32
RV Length: 42 ft
RV Type: Class A
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
AT&T 4G
We stayed for a long weekend. It is an older campground but very pretty area. It is electric only but they have a decent dump station and easy water access. Very kid friendly and nice hiking trails. Also a very pretty lake.
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because our site was definitely in need of some rock. Also the shower houses are old but plenty of hot water.
Nightly Rate: $20.00
Days Stayed: 3
Site Number: 36
RV Length: 30 ft
RV Type: Travel Trailer
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
Make no mistake, this place is absolutely gorgeous, so replete with natural awe that I’m forced to overlook the one, major downside and go ahead and grant the almighty full Cassiopeia.
A bald eagle watched over our afternoon for hours. Three herons and an egret took turns fishing and scaring away a flock of three dozen geese that just couldn’t find the peace and quiet they’d hoped for during their layover. Owls hooted lullabies and a woodpecker made for an early alarm clock. Fish jumped and bees buzzed and the pastel arrangement the sky made of itself was rivaled only by its reflection in this large, natural lake.
You can barely blame the size of the horseflies that greeted us, large enough to almost scare us away to try out the trailer camping area. But, setting up camp in the tent campground, the monster biters left us alone after their initial greeting. And though it was muggy and hot still a week into September, despite local foliage beginning its march into Fall, few bugs bothered us at all.
Still, there were downsides, as perhaps any a camping excursion requires. Minimal was the lathering of bird poop coating the picnic table beyond use. Worse was the rotting fruit, several full and rotting melons filling the fire pit to a point that, had we any desire to roast s’mores or tell spooky stories, they’d likely be of how we got sick all over the campsite from their gaseous goopy presence.
The absolute worst, however, was the multiple bag loads of garbage that could have been picked up. 45 minutes after putting our van in park, I was still digging water bottle caps and cigarette butts out of the grass. Beer cans, plastic jugs, endless cellophane and entire oily rags strewn about everywhere, despite there literally being two trash cans immediately across the street.
At $10 / night, the natural elements of this park are ever so worth it…but if we wouldn’t have paid, I would have barely been making minimum wage doing the park staff’s job. Then again, we never actually saw a single park ranger or worker at all…though the geese were polite enough to keep their own version of litter off the banks of the river and out of our campsite.
Nightly Rate: $10.00
Days Stayed: 1
Site Number: 3
RV Type: Van
Cell Coverage Rating
Verizon 4G
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Lake Murphysboro State Park
Hours
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Parking
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Pets Allowed
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Restrooms
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Wifi
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Wheelchair Accessible
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Credit Cards Accepted
- Affiliation
- State park or forest
- Back In RV Sites Count
- 12
- Last Nightly Rate
- 10.0
- Longest Vehicle Length Reported
- 42 ft
- Lowest Nightly Rate
- 10.0
- Max Length
- 35 ft
- Max Stay
- 14
- Sites Count
- 74
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Paved Sites
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Fifty Amp
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Full Hookup
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Rec Facilities
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Pull Through
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Dump Station
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Big Rigs
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Open Seasonally
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Age Restricted
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Back In RV Sites
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Boondock
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Cabin Sites
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Dispersed Sites
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Firewood
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Fulltime Residents
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Group Tent Sites
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Laundry
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Mobile Homes
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Permit Required
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Potable Water
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Propane
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Public Water
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Pull Through RV Sites
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Reservations
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Sewer Hookup
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Showers
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Sites
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Vehicle Wash Permitted
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Water Hookup
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Adult Only
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