Shady Rest Land and Water Reserve is a 28-acre (110,000 m2) natural area which protects a roughly 0.25-mile (0.40 km) segment of the Sangamon River west of White Heath, Illinois.

[1] The landscape includes a river, moraine, a forest with under-story herbs and wildlife, a rail-trail that moves through the site, and cultural history spots.

Additionally, in 2006, a park was established by the Piatt County Forest Preserve District with the use of a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to create a new place to fish, canoe, and hike.

The Cerro Gordo Moraine, which runs through Shady Rest, was the southern border of a lake that covered the lowlands extending north to Centreville.

An abandoned Illinois Central rail-bed trail, owned by Heartland Pathways, runs through the site with a bridge and trestle over the Sangamon River that is an attraction.

Some historic railroad interests would like to extend the MRRM's tracks to Lodge to join a Norfolk Southern mainline to complete a 23-mile (37 km) tourist circuit south to Monticello and back to the Railway Museum.

In its heyday, Shady Rest sported a number of small cabins, a club house, three residences and the space for tenting and recreational activities.