The Ottawa Heritage Trail: protecting and interpreting remnant pioneer cemetery prairies from Danville to Paxton, Illinois

This thesis presents a large scale vision for a system of unplowed remnant prairies in pioneer cemeteries in east-central Illinois, focusing on sites between the city of Danville and the town of Paxton. The objective of the thesis is to protect the remnants by cultivating place attachment among locals and visitors by providing information about the ecological and cultural significance of cemetery prairies. The strategy is to create unique opportunities for experiencing individual sites while associating those settings through a trail concept (a network of cemetery prairies), with the primary purpose of helping to protect isolated remnant prairies. Linking the sites through a designed trail, wayfinding elements, and a brochure elevates the individual significance of the small patches that would otherwise fade into history. Such a network could also create opportunities to extend the prairies, allowing them to flourish once again on a larger scale than at present. This project will cover the ecological and social benefits of such a proposal and will suggest how this concept can be expanded to cemetery and site development in general. Finally, site specific redesigns will be presented that consider alternative approaches to remnant cemetery prairies.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.L.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Landscape Architecture

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Wallace, Anna C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hays, David L.

• prairie
• protecting and interpreting remnant pioneer cemetery prairies
• cemetery
• landscape architecture's role in protecting remnant prairies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2011 Anna C. Wallace

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26147

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26147