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261 pins
Illinois Public Land Map for Hunters
261 public hunting places pinned on one map of Illinois; 4 program or unmapped records are listed under it.
Photo: jjmusgrove (CC BY 2.0)
All pinned hunting places, one Illinois map
Each pin marks the IDNR point layer, a refuge hunt-unit centre, a Forest Service polygon centre or a Corps reservoir centre, as listed on the record page. Each pin leads to its record page. Big federal tracts get a single pin even though they cover a great deal of ground, so use the pin as a doorway rather than a boundary. 74 pins fall in the IDNR Northwest region, the most of any, and 21 in the Northeast region, the fewest. Public ground is thin in the corn and soybean counties of the central plain and thickest along the rivers and in the far south, where the Shawnee Hills hold Shawnee National Forest and Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.
Pins by IDNR region
IDNR sorts its fact-sheet sites into five regions: Northwest, Northeast, East Central, West Central and South. The table counts pinned records by the region on each record; federal records take the region of their first county.
| IDNR region | Pinned places | Acres listed | Most common kinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northwest | 74 | 122,536 | Fish and wildlife area 24, State park 13 |
| Northeast | 21 | 53,032 | State park 5, Natural area 5 |
| East Central | 37 | 57,986 | Habitat area 16, State park 7 |
| West Central | 63 | 172,729 | Fish and wildlife area 16, State park 15 |
| South | 66 | 770,410 | Fish and wildlife area 17, Natural area 11 |
The biggest pins in each region
The five largest pinned records in each IDNR region are below. Federal tracts such as Shawnee National Forest and the national wildlife refuges lead the acreage in the south and along the rivers, while the northern regions are led by IDNR fish and wildlife areas and state parks.
Pins by kind of land
Of the 261 pins, 80 mark fish and wildlife and wildlife management areas and 72 mark state parks and recreation areas, which together are well over half of the map. Refuges, forests and Corps tracts are fewer but large, and the habitat and natural area pins are mostly small tracts. Group totals below use agency acreage, so shared complex boundaries inflate a few of them.
| Kind of land | Pins | Acres listed |
|---|---|---|
| Fish and wildlife areas | 80 | 254,522 |
| Habitat and conservation areas | 36 | 7,305 |
| State parks and recreation areas | 72 | 103,184 |
| Natural areas and nature preserves | 43 | 37,771 |
| State forests | 6 | 19,222 |
| National wildlife refuges | 13 | 128,212 |
| National forest lands | 4 | 589,996 |
| Corps lakes and federal tracts | 7 | 36,481 |
Records with no point on the map
These records have no single point: statewide programs, a river stretch described by bearings, and a hunt whose sites are not published. Their pages describe the application steps instead of a map.
| Record | Kind | Counties |
|---|---|---|
| Fox River, Kendall County | Hunting site | Kendall |
| IDNR Controlled Pheasant Hunting Program | Hunting program | Will, Clinton and Lee |
| Illinois Recreational Access Program | Access program | Bond, Christian and Clinton |
| IRAP Lake Springfield Archery Deer Hunting | Program site | No county stated |
Points from the land records (IDNR point and polygon layers, FWS hunt units, USFS, USACE reservoirs, as listed per record); checked November 13, 2026.
Sunset over the Mississippi River at Buffalo, Iowa, across from Rock Island CountyPhoto: David Brossard (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sunset over the Mississippi River with the St. Louis skyline, the Gateway Arch and the Eads BridgePhoto: Bryan Werner (CC BY 2.0)
Orange sunset over Horseshoe Lake with the St. Louis skyline beyondPhoto: Bryan Werner (CC BY 2.0)