The Illinois High Point is Charles Mound, located at 42° 30' 15"N, 90 ° 14' 24"W in Jo Daviess County. Its elevation is 1235 feet above sea level. Mark, Tammy, Matthew, Faith, and Mark II visited there on Saturday, September 8, 2003, the weekend after Labor Day, and the first open date after the Highpointers' Convention, the first weekend of August. We got there about 9 AM and stayed for about 15 minutes at the top.
The high point is on the private property of Wayne and Jean Wuebbels, of Scales Mound. Our sincere thanks to them for their generous hospitality.
From the northeast corner of Scales Mound, travel east on West Charles Mound Road 0.2 miles and turn left. Travel north on this road 0.5 miles and turn right. Travel east on this road 0.3 miles to the end of the Wuebbels' driveway--688 West Charles Mound Road:
Since this was an open weekend, I was expecting a larger crowd, but saw noone else the whole time, nor the summit-guarding cats. The gate was closed, but the padlock open. I stared at this padlock for about a minute before deciding to open the gate and drive through. After I got back home, I read on the Highpointers Web page that we should have parked here and walked the rest of the way. Our apologies to the owners for this error.
The reason for the gate was immediately obvious. There are many cattle on the Wuebbels' farm, some penned, some roving.
The winding, fairly level, gravel driveway is exactly 1 mile long to a point where it comes to a turn-around area next to a house.
We parked here and walked up, Mark and Tammy each pushing a stroller. It was steep and difficult to guide the triplet stroller.
The road up from the Parking sign is about 100 yards to the high point area and is a continuation of the gravel road we were traveling on and continued even past the high point. I understand that the Wuebbels built a new house past there, but we did not go any further than necessary.
This climb was quite similar in distance and elevation gain to the Michigan and Wisconsin ones.
The Geological marker is near the road, about 20 feet from the High Point sign.
The Registration book is between the two lawn chairs in a box with a rock on top, similar to the Iowa High Point Registration box
The only direction with a view is North, into Wisconsin, the border being less than a half-mile away:
Like most descents, it is a lot faster than the uphill climb.
We drove out the same way we came in, resecured the fence and continued on our way.
| Family Member | Count |
|---|---|
| Mark | 5 |
| Tammy | 3 |
| Krystyn | 3 |
| Matthew | 3 |
| Faith | 3 |
| Mark II | 2 |
| Shads | 3 |
| Zeke | 2 |
Mark earned the Highpointers' 5-state patch for this ascent.
Krystyn would have earned the patch, but had to work while we went to the Iowa and Illinois visits.
Greg Slayden (March
10, 1992); Adam Roddy
(Aug. 11, 1998); Roger Rowlett
(November 7, 1998); Alan
Ritter Family (June 20, 1999)
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| Written by: | Mark Ness |
| Last Revised by: | Mark Ness |
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