Community Corner
Forest Preserve's Get Your Kicks Challenge celebrates Route 66 centennial
This special program is filled with missions that will get you out exploring the Mother Road for a chance to win prizes.
The Forest Preserve District of Will County will mark this year’s Route 66 Centennial Celebration with a special program featuring missions and exploration along the Mother Road.
The Get Your Kicks Challenge runs Thursday, April 30, through Friday, July 31. Participants can win prizes and earn swag by completing missions through the free Goosechase app, with activities going live Thursday, April 30. Search on Goosechase for Get Your Kicks or enter the code SI1HRK.
Route 66 passes by several Will County forest preserves, connecting travelers to natural and cultural destinations across the region.
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“Route 66 stretches the length of Will County from our north border along Interstate 55 and follows Route 53 near Veterans Woods, through the heart of Joliet near Joliet Iron Works Historic Site, and south to the county border in Wilmington near Forked Creek Preserve,” said Em Wilcher, the Forest Preserve’s former recreation coordinator who now works as a real estate manager.
Challenge missions feature preserves and nearby communities, including Prairie Bluff Preserve in Crest Hill, downtown Lockport, downtown Joliet and Wilmington-area sites such as the Gemini Giant, the U.S. Forest Service’s Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and Forked Creek Preserve. Missions include photo opportunities, trivia and check-ins at local landmarks.
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“We’re thrilled to partner with the City of Lockport, the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum and Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie for this offering to residents and travelers alike, and we’re looking forward to hearing about the experiences participants have out on the road,” Wilcher said.
The program also ties into the county’s broader transportation history, with sites such as Isle a la Cache Museum, Joliet Iron Works and McKinley Woods reflecting earlier eras of travel and industry including the French fur trade, the shipment of iron and steel products via rail and the I&M Canal’s history of goods being pulled by mules along the path.
“So, it makes sense that we would also celebrate Route 66 and the role the road has played in the cultural development of the Will County,” Wilcher said.
