Dixon Springs State Park is one of several state parks in the
Illinois Shawnee Hills. The park is on a giant block of rock
which was dropped 200 feet along a fault line that extends
northwesterly across Pope County. The 801 acre Pope County park
is about 10 miles west of Golconda on IL Rt. 146 near its
junction with IL Rt. 45. The first land acquisition was in 1946.
The area around the park was occupied by various tribes of
Algonquins who, after the Shawnee had been driven from
Tennessee, settled near the mouth of the Wabash River. Dixon
Springs was one of their favorite camping grounds and was called
"Kitchemuske-nee-be" for the Great Medicine Waters. One of the
better-known Indian Trails, which the early French called the
"Grand Trace," passed to the west of the park and south to Fort
Massac, then branched out into lesser trails. Much of the "Grand
Trace" is IL Rt.145, one of the most scenic highways in the
state, running nearly all of its length south from Harrisburg
through the Shawnee National Forest. Th