Somewhere west of Chicago, past the strip malls and subdivisions, an old wooden gate opens onto 54 acres of grass, water, and the sound of a small steam whistle. Illinois hides a lot of ordinary-looking parks, but this one turns out to hold ponies, a merry-go-round, a miniature train, and a whole pioneer village all under one admission ticket.
Kids chase goats with paper feed cups while parents drift between a blacksmith shop and a pottery studio. It sounds like too much for one afternoon, and honestly, it usually is.
An Old-Fashioned Farm Park Tucked Into Aurora’s West Side
At 100 S Barnes Rd in Aurora, Illinois, Blackberry Farm spreads across 54 acres of lawn, lake, and shade trees roughly an hour west of downtown Chicago. Google lists it as a children’s farm, which undersells things considerably.
What you actually get is part amusement park, part petting zoo, part living history museum, all fenced into one walkable property run by the Fox Valley Park District…