My father called the large empty lots the "back forty." We kids called it "the prairie" until the land was finally mowed.
Houses were not built on the land, for fear that the foundations would crack.
For some time, fires smoldered within the bog, occasionally flaring up enough that the fire department had to be called.
The good old days.
Because of its glacial history, wetlands are particularly concentrated in northeastern Illinois. A variety of wetland types, such as marshes, sedge meadows, fens, and bogs, support a unique and sometimes rare flora and fauna. Bogs in Illinois are limited to glacial depressions in the northeastern part of the state. Acidic conditions created by the lack of drainage and accumulation of layers of peat support uniquely adapted flora, such as leatherleaf, blueberry, cranberry, ferns, orchids, pitcherplant, sundew, poison sumac, and tamarack.