U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Eight Dollar Mountain may have gotten its name from a nearby discovery of a gold nugget worth $8.00. Another story is that a man wore out a pair of shoes worth $8.00 walking around its base. On March 25, 1856, the Battle of Eight Dollar Mountain, a skirmish in the Rogue River Indian War, was fought in this area. The Eight Dollar Mountain Darlington fen is characterized by the California pitcher plant (Darlingtonia californica), a carnivorous plant which feeds on insects when they become trapped in the vase shaped leaves of the plant. This area is one of the larger, more easily accessible fens in the Illinois Valley. The area is considered a fen, rather than a bog because water travels through the pitcher plant area from intermittent streams. A bog area has standing water, which is not fed by outside sources. Eight Dollar Mountain features two trails. The upper trail is a 1/8 mile boardwalk. The lower trail, for those seeking more of a challenge, is a 1 mile loop that overlooks the Illinois River.

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