Lowell recruited the Olmsted Brothers, a nationally prominent architecture firm formed by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted, to provide a design for the park; their design emphasized the park's natural scenery by ensuring that its manmade features complemented rather than distracted from it.

The park opened to the public in 1907, though its original plan was not fully completed until 1942.

In addition, the park preserves one of the few remaining segments of the Boles Trail, which ran from Peoria to Galena.

[2] The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 8, 2006.

This article about a property in Lee County, Illinois on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.