Ex-strip mine now Pyramid State Park

PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. -- Standing in this spot five years ago might have gotten you trampled by a dinosaur.

It was that recently that trucks as large as brontosauruses and bulldozers built like stegosauruses roamed freely in this part of Illinois.

For much of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, this was coal mine country. Today, the land once mined by Arch Minerals Corp. is owned by the state of Illinois, which purchased about 16,000 acres in the past year.

When Gov. George Ryan announced the acquisition of 9,111 acres earlier this year, it completed the three-phase purchase of land for what now is Illinois' largest state park.

Once a little-known park of some 3,200 acres, Pyramid State Park -- itself a former strip mine in the 1930s -- now is nearly 20,000 acres.

"It's like they loaded up part of Wisconsin and trucked it down here for us," said Glen Hacker, one of the first people to go fishing when the park's lakes opened to the public this summer.

David Phillips, longtime site superintendent at Pyramid, says the potential for the park is unlimited.

No place like it

"This is a new place," said Phillips, 53, who has been at Pyramid for more than a dozen years. He now co-manages the site with former Perry County Treasurer Cha Hill. "There is nothing like it in Illinois."

Driving across new sections of the park, Phillips is like a carpenter who's just been handed a couple of 2-by-4s and a hammer and saw.

The park contains several lakes, and a handful opened this summer. Visitors will have to wait several months or more before stepping foot on the entire property because of needed road work and improvements, Phillips said.

The original 3,181-acre park is open for hunting, fishing and trail use. Other portions of the new park will be open as follows:

The 4,385-acre Denmark area will open in autumn 2002.

Fishing at the 2,866-acre Galum and 6,103-acre Captain areas will begin next spring or summer. Archery deer hunting and waterfowl hunting are planned for those sites beginning next fall.