Beaver Dam State Park is an Illinois state park on 750 acre (304 ha) in Macoupin County

Macoupin County, Illinois

Macoupin County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 47,765, which is a decrease of 2.6% from 49,019 in 2000. The county seat is Carlinville. Macoupin County is an outlying county of the Metro-East region...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The park is 7 miles (11.3 km) southwest of Carlinville, Illinois

Carlinville, Illinois

Carlinville is a city in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 5,685, and 5,912 at a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Macoupin County, and so it is an outlying part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St...

 and is managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Illinois Department of Natural Resources

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a cabinet-level department of the state government of Illinois. It is headquartered in the state capital of Springfield...

 (IDNR) as a public place for fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

.

The state park centers on the 59 acre (23.9 ha) Beaver Dam Lake, an artificial reservoir which was created by a private Carlinville fishing club in the 1890s. The club later became a private resort

Resort

A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company....

 which catered to visitors who arrived via the adjacent Chicago and Alton Railroad. During the Great Depression, the resort failed. The state of Illinois purchased the lake and some adjacent property in 1947. Additional land purchases have created the present-day Beaver Dam State Park.

The IDNR manages Beaver Dam Lake for the fishing of largemouth bass

Largemouth bass

The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...

, bluegill

Bluegill

The Bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, brim, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes.-Range and distribution:...

, channel catfish

Channel catfish

Channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States they are the most fished catfish species with approximately 8...

, and sunfish

Centrarchidae

The sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...

. In addition, the park offers opportunities for the hunting of deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, wild turkey

Wild Turkey

The Wild Turkey is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is the same species as the domestic turkey, which derives from the South Mexican subspecies of wild turkey .Adult wild turkeys have long reddish-yellow to grayish-green...

, and small game. There is a power limit for boats using the Beaver Dam Lake reservoir, with no gasoline-powered motors allowed.

Beaver Dam State Park preserves part of the historic oak-hickory forests that line upper Macoupin Creek

Macoupin Creek

Macoupin Creek is a tributary of the Illinois River, which it joins near the village of Hardin, Illinois.The word macoupin refers to the yellow pond lily , a native plant of the regional wetlands, and a favorite food source of local Indians. It has a large rootstock that was baked in a fire pit...

. There are 8 miles (13 km) of hiking trails in the park. The reservoir and park drain into a tributary of Macoupin Creek.