Plum Island offers a prime window for bird enthusiasts and curious onlookers eager to view our majestic national bird, the bald eagle. With a wingspan of six to eight feet, eagles circle above the open water below a dam in the Illinois River and perch in trees on Plum Island.

Over 3,100 bald eagles migrate to Illinois during the winter—the most of any state other than Alaska. Plum Island, located near Starved Rock State Park, provides a safe migration destination for eagles and a unique birding opportunity for millions of visitors every year.

The island is also important to Native American history. Native American tribes called Plum Island home for more than 10,000 years. Both English and French traders used Plum Island as a trading post. Later, this area was the site of a massacre between the Potawatomi and the Illinois Native American tribes.

In 2002, developers threatened the island with plans to build high-end log cabins and a marina. Much of the island would have been bulldozed, destroying both bald eagle habitat and Native American burial sites. Community members shared their voice with over 25,000 petition signatures asking for protection of Plum Island.

In 2004, Trust for Public Land partnered with the Illinois Audubon Society, the Army Corps of Engineers, local environmental and community organizations, and volunteers to secure permanent protection for the island.

Contributions from the Illinois Clean Energy and Community Foundation and a TPL supporter Robin Labancz provided the funding to support the purchase and creation of the Plum Island Eagle Sanctuary.

“We felt it would be a shame for people to look down at the island from Starved Rock and see cabins instead of eagles,” said Marilyn Campbell, executive director of the Illinois Audubon Society. Today, the Illinois Audubon Society and its volunteers own and maintain the property and keep it undisturbed for the eagles and for people watching them from the bluffs above or fishing along the banks of the Illinois River.