Some creeks have names, and that’s it. Some creeks don’t even have names.

Franklin Creek in northern Lee County has some interesting sights around it.

Franklin Creek State Natural Area preserves the watershed and its surrounding nature for flora and fauna to thrive in, while giving people access to see the natural beauty. It’s a large park with hiking trails, ponds, plenty of fishing and even a storybook trail where kids can following along a story by walking around part of the park to new pages posted on markers.

Not far from the park, the Franklin Creek Grist Mill is a replica grist mill that continues to make flour from waterpower and a large wheel. It is one of only two grist mills operating in Illinois: The other one is an original mill, the Graue Mill, in the former community of Fullersburg (now part of Oak Brook) in DuPage County.

Two more destinations to add to your traveling list. Easy info. They add to the preservation of our ecosystem.

I visited the park and mill for a story I put together for the Spring 2023 edition of Small Town Living East for Shaw Media (the rural Lee County magazine). While putting the story together and taking pictures, I spotted a small frog swimming in the creek, and I tried my darnedest to get a good picture of it.

That gave me an interesting thought: What if I wrote a story about the entire creek in a frog’s perspective? That would help me link a couple of other interesting things about the creek itself into this story. So I expanded the scope for the story to include the entire creek, as well as one of the small streams – Chaplin Creek – that led to the point where Franklin Creek begins, near Franklin Grove.

Ultimately, the follow-the-frog mindset didn’t pan out for the professional story, nor did my frog photo, but the premise remains. Who is old enough to remember catching frogs from the creek as a kid? The more they hid in vegetation, the better they escaped kid’s paws. Then the kids catch on and look for them in a sea of green weeds.

Eventually, the frogs have to go back into their familiar habitat. If you returned a frog at the start of Chaplin Creek, what all would it see on its journey further in the water, and off of it? That toad would see an antique tractor show in August, a historic replica village, a state park, a grist mill, roaming buffalo, possible cattle legs, and final the creek’s mouth into the Rock River on the opposite end of Grand Detour.

My story actually goes out of order along the way, but it encompasses all of what I described.

Click below to read the story and learn all about what Franklin Creek in Lee County has to offer, including specific details about its sites.