BlockFrom the record
One of 19 National Register listings published here for Jackson County · listed in 1985 · category: Building.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Giant City State Park Lodge and Cabins
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 13 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
- Address. RR #1, Makanda, 62920
- When was it listed? March 1985
- Category. building
- Also known as. Illinois State Parks Lodges and Cabins TR
- National Register reference number. 85002403 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
20 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Giant City State Park Lodge and Cabins between 1992 and 2020, burning about 31 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 August 1999 | Smoking | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | ROCKYCOMF1 |
| 8 April 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | GENTRY |
| 8 April 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | DKCAMP#1 |
| 7 April 1995 | Smoking | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | DKLINE#1 |
| 3 April 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | ARROW FIRE |
| 14 April 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Shawnee National Forest | ROWAN |
| 27 February 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | PINE RIDGE |
| 24 February 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | DKLINE#6 |
Mines and quarries near this property
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Giant City State Park Lodge and Cabins: 1 occurrence, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Silica, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N.Cobden Sandstone Deposit | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Prospect | ||
| Shawnee Special Use Silica Deposit 1 | Silica | Occurrence |
Storms near this property
12 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Makanda, the town this property stands in, in 12 storm reports between 2004 and 2023: 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2012 | Tornado (EF2) | Makanda | $100,000 | The tornado passed into southeast Jackson County from Union County. The tornado was only on the ground for a short time in Jackson County before it lifted. The damage path ended in Giant City State Park. Thousands of trees were snapped or uprooted. Barns and grain bins were destroyed, along with downed power lines. Peak winds were estimated near 115 mph. The average path width was 250 yards. |
| February 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | $50,000 | A downburst averaging 1/2 mile wide resulted in thousands of trees being snapped or uprooted in the Devil's Kitchen Lake area, around and east of the Giant City State Park area. Peak winds were estimated near 110 mph. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | $5,000 | Several trees were blown down. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | $2,000 | A tree and power lines were down across Old Highway 51. |
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | $2,000 | A tree and a power line was blown down. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | $2,000 | Two trees were covering Rocky Comfort Road. |
| April 2017 | Flood | Makanda | - | The flash flooding during the overnight and early morning hours transitioned to a more prolonged flooding situation. Several city streets were flooded and impassable in Carbondale, including a main thoroughfare. Highway 51 was flooded in a couple of spots in the Carbondale area. In Makanda, the city park was underwater. A Canadian National railroad track was flooded at a street crossing. A trained spotter near the western border of the county measured 4.20 inches during the overnight and early morning storms. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | - | Tree limbs about two to three inches in diameter were blown down. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Makanda | - | Quarter-size hail fell in Giant City State Park. |
| July 2005 | Heavy Rain | Makanda | - | Standing water was on secondary roads due to heavy rainfall amounts estimated by radar from one to two inches. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Makanda | - | A couple of trees were blown down in the Makanda and Grand Tower areas. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Makanda | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Listed places nearby
1 within 8 milesOther National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Giant City Stone Fort Site | 2.3 miles | 2002 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 85002403 in Record Group 79. |
| Jackson County | All 19 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
- Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
- How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
- Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
- Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
- Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.