Funks Grove, Illinois
Funks Grove is a historic unincorporated community on U.S. Route 66 in McLean County, Illinois, United States southwest of Bloomington. The grove for which the settlement is named, Funk's Grove, is a National Natural Landmark.
Natural history
Illinois's Grand Prairie is spotted with groves, small patches of land where local terrain conditions discouraged prairie fires and allowed trees to reach maturity. One of these spots is the lower drainage of Timber Creek, a prairie rivulet that forms a tributary of Sugar Creek. All of these creeks eventually form part of the Sangamon River drainage of the Illinois River.
The banks of Timber Creek, in early historic times, were thickly forested with white oaks, bur oaks, and sugar maple trees. The white oak became the state tree of Illinois, while the sugar maples were used by local Illini Native Americans to make springtime maple syrup and maple sugar.
Maple sweetening was highly prized among early Euro-American settlers, and as early as 1824 Isaac Funk settled here. The Funk family began to sell sirup commercially in 1891, and the family continues to control and harvest much of the grove as of 2008.
