Date/Time
14 Mar 2026
9:00 am - 5:30 pm
Location
Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup, 5257 Old Route 66, Shirley, Illinois
*
Join IFI in exploring the attractions of Funks Grove, Illinois, on Saturday, March 14th! As a special Spring Break opportunity, this event will be FREE! The event is limited to 20 participants, so please only sign up if you are sure that you will attend. We will visit a maple syrup store and see how sap is tapped from sugar maple trees. There will be an opportunity to enjoy the nature preserve located in surrounding uncut forest area with a noon picnic lunch for those who want lunch. Then we will visit the huge Funk 22-room mansion and tour their amazing geological museum. We may also have some other IFI events later in the Spring Break week. Check what gets posted at uiuc.ifiusa.org or email Bill Erickson at if interested.
See the questions on the sign-up form regarding the picnic lunch. For those who want it, IFI will provide a sandwich, chips, fruit and veggie picnic lunch, along with bottled water. Just indicate your picnic request in the sign-up. Bring some money for any shopping that you wish to do at the maple syrup store. Transportation is provided, but you must provide your own car seats for any small children who require them. All attendees must be signed up, but only sign up if you are positive that you will attend. Cancel only if you become sick.
Isaac Funk settled in this wilderness area, just south of Bloomington, Illinois, in 1820. The 25,000 acres that the Funk family developed now offers many sites to experience for a very unique day trip! See how maple syrup is made from the sap of maple trees at Funks Grove Maple Syrup store! Enjoy acres of original uncut forest, filled with huge oak and sugar maple trees intertwined with hiking paths. Explore the historic Funk farmstead built in 1864 and walk through their 22 room Funk Prairie Home Mansion! The house was built in 1864 and is furnished with much of their original furniture. The Funk’s engineering ingenuity included the generation of their own electricity decades before the rest of society! Learn about their close friendship with Abraham Lincoln. We will also tour the Funk’s amazing Gem and Mineral Museum with treasures collected from all over the world! The Funks gained world recognition through their introduction of hybridized seed for grain farming. They freely shared their agricultural discoveries with scores of nations around the world. Their display of fossils, artifacts and stone treasures includes thousands of items they collected in the nations they blessed with their seed hybridizing methods.The tremendous influence of the Funk family in Central Illinois, over the past two centuries, is attested to by their roles in the birthing of the University of Illinois, as well as Wesleyan University and Illinois State University located in Bloomington. Their most recent contribution at the U of I was their 2001 funding of the Aces Library construction in the agricultural campus at UIUC.
*