Belmont Prairie was recognized as the 2024 Historic Site of the Year on ceremony on August 24, 2024. This prairie represents the way pioneers saw Downers Grove in 1832 when they settled so this is probably the oldest piece of Downers Grove history that we  still have.

Many people have helped keep this land in its original form.

True defenders for the preservation of the prairie were Alfred Dupree and his wife Margo Dupree. Al was born in Sayville, New York in 1914 and lived with Margo and their 3 children in a house at 4816 Francisco near this prairie. His love of nature often took him on walks through this prairie where he enjoyed taking pictures of the plants he found here. As a member of the Morton Arboretum Camera Club he shared the pictures with the club. Soon the club members realized the place in his pictures was a remnant of the natural prairies that covered Illinois in the days of the pioneers.

Al, along with others, was now concerned that this prairie would be lost to development as other prairies were so he started to investigate who owned this land. In November of 1973 he helped for a group called the Belmont Prairie Preservation Association with the goal of purchasing this land from  its many owners and then transferring ownership to the Illinois Nature Conservancy that would protect  this prairie from destruction.

The  Downers Grove Park District applied  for federal grants and with donations they purchased the prairie from the Nature Conservancy for the price of $196,000.