Resource Management – Oak Forest, IL

About forestry service, 60305, River Forest, IL, US, Illinois

Oak Forest is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The city is out 24 miles (39 km) south-southwest of downtown Chicago in Bremen Township. Per the 2020 census, the population was 27,478. == History == Human habitation in Oak Forest began during the early Holocene. This is made evident by the remains of hunting camps on what would become the grounds of the city's hospital. Several millennia later, the final known indigenous settlement in Oak Forest, a Potawatomi longhouse village, was established nearby. However, it was abandoned by the 1620s. The origins of present-day Oak Forest begins with a railroad whistle stop on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad 1 block south of the intersection of 167th street and Central Avenue which primarily served area dairy farmers. This stop was located in a largely forested area of what was previously known as the Cooper's Grove Stand of Timber. By the 1880s this particular area of timber was being referred to as the "Oak Forest" due to its abundance of oak trees.