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State park bordering Rend Lake
The
Wayne Fitzgerrell State Recreation Area
is a 3,300-acre (13.4 km²) state park bordering
Rend Lake
near
Benton, Illinois
.
[1]
The state park is managed by the
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
to concentrate on shoreline recreation, including
boating
,
fishing
, and
picnicking
.
After Rend Lake was completed by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
in 1970, much of the land acquired by the Army Corps for dam and reservoir construction was available for open-space use. Starting in 1975, the Army Corps leased the Wayne Fitzgerrell parcel of land to the state of Illinois. The state park is named for
Wayne Fitzgerrell
, a member of the
Illinois House of Representatives
from nearby
Wayne County
in the 70th through 74th General Assemblies. Fitzgerrell had been one of the local leaders who had called for the damming of the
Big Muddy River
and creation of Rend Lake.
Wayne Fitzgerrell was originally dedicated as a state park but changed its name in the 1990s to reflect its identity as a space managed for
sportsmen
. 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of the park is consciously managed for the hunting of
deer
, upland birds such as
pheasants
, and small game.
The park is a focus of public access to Rend Lake, which is managed for the fishing of
largemouth bass
,
bluegill
,
channel catfish
, and
crappie
.
Wayne Fitzgerrell is one of the few state parks in Illinois which is bisected by a limited-access highway,
Interstate 57
. Many visitors to the park use I-57's Exit 77, near the park's headquarters at
Whittington, Illinois
.
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