University Park, Illinois

Governors State University (Governors State, GSU, GovState, or GOVST) is a public university in University Park, Illinois. The 750 acres (3.0 km2) campus is located 30 miles (48 km) south of Chicago, Illinois. GSU was founded in 1969. It is a public university offering degree programs at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. GSU has four colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education, and the College of Health and Human Services.

Thorn Creek Woods Nature Center and Preserve is located in Will County, Illinois, near the municipality of Park Forest, Illinois. It is part of the Forest Preserve District of Will County. The entranceway to Thorn Creek Woods Nature Preserve is located at 247 Monee Road, approximately 0.25-mile (400 m) north of Stunkel Road, in Park Forest. The preserve is open 8:00 a.m. - dusk daily; the Nature Center is open 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. Friday- Sunday. At 830 acres (3.4 km2), Thorn Creek Nature Preserve lies at the headwaters of Thorn Creek and consists of bottomlands, ravines, and white-oak forests interspersed with marsh and meadows. The actual nature center is located inside of an old church right off Monee Road. It is two stories and contains a nature library and nature exhibits. The trail starts behind the church and heads east into the woods. The topography varies. The trail starts off on high land before dropping down into the Thorn Creek River Valley. It then crosses the creek and goes up and out of the valley, again. The terrain is pretty rugged, especially near the river and its tributaries, because they have cut many gorges and ravines.

Monee Township is one of 24 townships in Will County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 15,669 and it contained 6,182 housing units. Monee Township used to be known as Carcy Township, but the name was changed at an unknown date.

University Park is a station on Metra's Metra Electric District line located in University Park, Illinois. University Park is the southern terminus of the Metra Electric main line and is 31.5 miles (50.7 km) away from the northern terminus at Millennium Station. The station is located on South Governor's Highway near West Stuenkel Road. In Metra's zone-based fare system, University Park is in zone G. As of 2018, University Park is the 64th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 808 weekday boardings.University Park station is located at grade level. The station consists of one island platform which serves two tracks; Canadian National tracks (ex-Illinois Central) parallel the Metra Electric tracks. The station has an unstaffed waiting room with a ticket vending machine. Parking is available at the station. University Park opened in 1977; Metra Electric service (then part of the Illinois Central Railroad) previously had terminated at Richton Park, the first stop after University Park.

Park Forest Plaza was a shopping center located in the planned community of Park Forest, Illinois, United States, that opened in 1949. The center was developed by Philip M. Klutznick, (1907-1999), who was also a prominent leader in the national Jewish community and later served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce under 39th President Jimmy Carter. The architects were Loebl, Schlossman and Bennett.Park Forest Plaza was one of the first major regional shopping centers in the United States of the post-World War II era and it served as the downtown to the adjacent village. Klutznick followed many of same principles and concepts in architecture, land use and design espoused by nationally famous developer James W. Rouse (1914-1996) of Baltimore. The distinctive clock tower in the open courtyard became the symbol of both the shopping center and the village. The grass and tree-lined courtyard gave the center an airy attractiveness which was popular much of the year. The mall was anchored by a Marshall Field's, Sears, and Goldblatt's department storesCompetition from a new larger indoor mall in nearby Matteson, Illinois three decades later in the early 1970s ultimately doomed Park Forest Plaza. The mall did survive until 1996 when Field's closed and Sears moved to nearby Lincoln Mall. The village has now converted what was left to a "regular" downtown area with local services, including retail stores, a banquet hall, a cultural arts center, a dance studio, a movie theater, a senior residential community and the Village Hall. Single-family homes are also being built on the outskirts of the downtown area.

Crete-Monee High School (CMHS) is a comprehensive public high school located in Crete, Illinois, a south suburb of Chicago, in the United States. Known colloquially as Crete, the high school houses students representing the surrounding communities of Crete, Monee, University Park, and portions of Park Forest. The student body as of 2020 was 66.0% black, 16.6% white, 13.3% Hispanic, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% American Indian, and 3.6% of two or more races. As of 2016 the 4-year graduation rate was 89%, a full three percentage points higher than the Illinois state average of 86%.

Richton Park is the penultimate station along the main branch of the Metra Electric line, in Richton Park, Illinois. It is located on Sauk Trail, east of Governor's Highway, and is 29.3 miles (47.2 km) away from the northern terminus at Millennium Station. In Metra's zone-based fare system, Richton Park is in zone F. As of 2018, Richton Park is the 47th busiest of Metra's 236 non-downtown stations, with an average of 1,059 weekday boardings. The station has two tracks and one island platform, with one of the tracks ending at the station. Richton Park was originally built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1946, in order to be in close proximity to the south end of the "IC Electric" coach storage yard. It served as the terminus of the line until 1977, when the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority funded the construction of University Park station. Today, Richton Park station is a far more modern-looking structure. Parking is available on Sauk Trail between Governor's Highway and Richton Square Road, on Richton Road, Mill Drive, and along Tower Road.

Park Forest is an L5 chondrite meteorite that fell on 26 March 2003 in Illinois, United States.

Richton Park is a village and a southern suburb of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,775 at the 2020 census. The community was named after a Richton in Vermont, the native home of a first settler.

Monee is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States, a south suburb of Chicago. The population was 5,128 at the 2020 census.

The Southland College Preparatory Charter High School (SCPHS; also known as Southland College Prep, Southland College Prep High School, or simply Southland) is a College Preparatory Charter High School in Richton Park, Illinois. The school serves the communities of Richton Park, Country Club Hills, Matteson, Olympia Fields, and Park Forest.

Sauk Trail Woods are located within the Cook County Forest Preserves in Park Forest and Chicago Heights, Illinois. They are part of the Thorn Creek Trail System. They contain miles of paved bike trails and off-trail dirt paths. Sauk Trail Woods contains Sauk Lake and Thorn Creek. The topography is fairly hilly, featuring ravines and steep, eroded hillsides. The elevation is the highest on the outskirts of the preserve. Then, as one goes into the Thorn Creek River Valley, you descend steep hills and sandy bluffs. There is an abundance of ravines that have been cut by creeks flowing into the valley. Many of the ravines are surprisingly deep near the bottom of the valley. Most of the Sauk Trail Woods Preserve is covered by dense woods, however there are some open prairie areas. In the northwest section of the woods, there is a fairly large marsh, that is surrounded by thick pampas grass and shallow bogs. The woods are located on the Valparaiso Moraine, which accounts for the hilliness of the area. There are many parking lots with pavilions situated throughout the preserve.