Willow Creek Woods

Willow Creek Woods includes the wooded areas north of the Natatorium (including Willow Beach) and the Willow Creek corridor south to Campus Drive.

The group of open-grown oaks directly north of the Natatorium and east of the Lakeshore Path bridge over Willow Creek tells of a different time when fire and/or grazing kept the land an open oak savanna.  This (undoubtedly) once-beautiful stand of scattered trees, 23 in number, is now choked with the growth of numerous weedy, woody species. 

The oaks themselves represent several species—bur oak, white oak, and black oak (with possible introgressive hybridization involving whites and burs).  The area also includes an important Indian burial mound group.