The Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, started as the dream of a former minor league baseball player.
Rob Carmichael grew up in Lake Forest, went off to college and then played minor league baseball for the now-defunct Windsor Chiefs in Canada for two years.
“I realized wildlife was my real passion,” said Carmichael, now curator.
He returned to Chicago and worked at the Brookfield Zoo before returning to Lake Forest to run athletics programs for the city from 1990 to 1996.
“During that time, I was always kind of talking to our directors about a desire to start a nature center,” Carmichael said.
Sally Swarthout, director of Parks and Recreation, said the department’s former director, Fred Jackson, thought it was a great program to bring to kids who weren’t into athletics.
“It kind of gave us a diversity we didn’t have,” she said. “And Rob, it’s his passion.”
When a room in the city recreation center on Hastings Road opened up, Carmichael applied for and received a $500 grant from the Chicago Herpetological Society, which he used to buy cages and other supplies. In 1997, Carmichael switched from athletics to the nature center and the Wildlife Discovery Center started.
Initially, it was a small operation. The room was perhaps 18 by 18 feet, Carmichael estimated, and held only reptiles and amphibians.
“They are a fairly easy group of animals to take care of, fairly low maintenance and affordable,” Carmichael said. “Plus, kids love reptiles.”
The space was so small that they kept several birds of prey outside. Carmichael recalled one time when they were letting Curly, their red-tailed hawk, fly there.
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“A squirrel came out of nowhere,” Carmichael said. “Curly came flying down and grabbed the squirrel. They were rolling around. We were next to the (city) dance studio, and all the dance students were up against the window, staring out at this National Geographic moment.”
The collection of animals grew and by 2000, the Wildlife Discovery Center was running out of space. Around that time, a former farm in west Lake Forest, once owned by a branch of the Armour family, came on the market. A local developer, the city and Lake Forest Open Lands all wanted a part of the 200 or so acres, and struck a deal to split it, Carmichael said.
“The original plan was to bulldoze the buildings and put a neighborhood park at the spot,” Carmichael said. “The Parks & Recreation director had a vision. He drove me over here. I remember driving over the hill and seeing the old farm buildings. I lived here all my life and I had no idea about this place.”
City Manager Bob Kiely put together a vision committee to consider saving the buildings and figure out how the city should use its portion of the property. That became Elawa Farm. The committee concluded that part of Elawa Farm should hold the Wildlife Discovery Center.
The Wildlife Discovery Center moved to the property in 2003. Over the years, the buildings were restored and the collection of animals increased. Today, the Wildlife Discovery Center cares for about 100 animals, mostly rescue animals that have been injured in the wild.
Among the more unusual animals are Flora the rhinoceros-iguana, an alligator-snapping turtle estimated to be 150 years old, Maximus the saltwater crocodile, an Asian water monitor named Grug that Carmichael said was a gift from actor Nicholas Cage, Casanova the American alligator and Boris the bobcat.
“Boris has like rock star status here,” Carmichael said. “He has a big fan club.”
While Carmichael is a city employee, the Wildlife Discovery Center gets almost all of its money from fundraising, user fees for programs or grants, Carmichael said. Last year, about 18,000 people toured the Wildlife Discovery Center and about 50,000 attended outreach programs that included traveling exhibits, summer programs, weekend classes, school visits, and an annual trip to Beaver Island, Mich., Carmichael said.
Besides fundraising, the center has two ongoing challenges. One is space, which has again become tight. The city of Lake Forest is currently considering ways to allocate space at Elawa Farm, Carmichael said.
Another challenge is changing things up to keep the public interested.
“We have to look at exhibit stagnation,” Carmichael said.
To combat that, the Center brings in new animals, and in the next few weeks, it will obtain a two-toed sloth, Carmichael said.
The Wildlife Discovery Center is also starting a new program called Animal Encounters, probably in the next month. For a fee, visitors will be able to have private time with an animal and trainer, he said; the animals will likely include one of the birds of prey, mammals and reptiles.
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