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Naval Air Station Glenview was an operational U.S. Naval Air Station from 1923 to 1995. Located in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the air base primarily operated training aircraft as well as seaplanes on nearby Lake Michigan during WWII. Reconfigured as a Naval Air Reserve base following WWII, NAS Glenview supported Naval Air Reserve and Marine Air Reserve/4th Marine Aircraft Wing units, as well as an active duty Coast Guard Air Station. On June 29, 1998, the Navy transferred the last segment of the closed Naval Air Station Glenview from Navy ownership to private ownership, with the Village of Glenview, Illinois and the Local Reuse Authority taking possession of over 90% of the closed portion of the base. Removed were 1 million cubic yards of concrete, 1.5 miles of runways and 108 former Department of Defense buildings. The new use plan called for a "mixed use" scenario providing open space and public land, senior and residential housing, recreational and sports areas, mixed retail areas, a business park, a new railroad station and an area used as a "prairie reserve". The project has restored a true Illinois tallgrass prairie with a wetlands area. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the interior lowlands of the United States, Canada and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, somewhat hillier land to the east. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and sizable parts of the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and western and southern Minnesota. The Central Valley of California is also considered a prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Prairie in North America is usually split into three groups: wet, mesic, and dry. They are generally characterized by tallgrass prairie, mixed, or shortgrass prairie, depending on the quality of soil and rainfall.(Information from various sources) This shot was taken from the wetlands overlook looking north - the prairie extends westward as well for about a 1/4 of a mile.