The preserve recently celebrated its 50^th anniversary of permanent legal protection. When the Heron Pond – Wildcat Bluff Nature Preserve was dedicated in 1971, it was one of Illinois’ first nature preserves and also one of the first natural areas protected by law in the entire country. It pre-dated the protection of rare species by the Illinois Endangered Species Act, the federal Endangered Species Act, the delineation of the Natural Divisions of Illinois, and the publication of the original INAI. The concept of natural areas, their conservation, and their management was very much in its infancy. It is also 50 years since designation as a National Natural Landmark (NNL) by the Secretary of the Interior. NNLs are natural areas recognized as containing “significant examples of the nation’s biological and/or geological features”. More specifically, the official NNL brief recognizes this protected natural area as “the largest remaining cypress-tupelo swamp in Illinois” with an “outstanding example of alluvial, colluvial, and lacustrine sedimentation within an entrenched meandering valley system”.