Above / May Watts Park with its .89-mile trail around a pond is located with entrance signs at 1320 Sequoia Road, 1321 Oakton and 804 S. Whispering Hills. (PN Photo)
As Illinois days grow shorter and autumn approaches, whenever we step onto the trail at May Watts Park, we’re mindful that the colorful landscape surrounding May Watts Pond is a natural tribute to former Naperville resident, May Theilgaard Watts.
If you find yourself exploring the wonders of the Morton Arboretum this fall, a champion of trees in their natural habitat, be sure to ask the staff what they know about May Watts. And remember the park setting and school named in her honor right in the heart of Naperville.
Enjoy the beauty of the changing season as green turns to amber then sepia tones. It’s just begun!
PN photos here are a very small sampling of ones taken in mid-September 2025.
Visitors occasionally wonder why there’s no stone marker, historic plaque or informational sign in the park that helps tell the rich story of the internationally-known enthusiastic educator for which the park, pond, sled hill and school are named.
A few notes about May Theilgaard Watts
Born in Chicago to Danish parents, naturalist May Theilgaard Watts (1893-1975) is remembered worldwide for her ideas and dedication to the Illinois Prairie Path when she lived at 227 E. Jefferson Ave.
She enjoyed a passion for preserving, writing and teaching about the great outdoors at the Morton Arboretum. Even more, in 1963, the mother, activist, and visionary wrote a letter to the Chicago Tribune, proposing the first rail trail in the United States.
All these years later, the park, trail and District 204 elementary school bordering Countryside and West Wind subdivisions in the heart of Naperville are a tribute to her devoted efforts back in the 1960s.
Many youngsters learn to ride their bikes here. (Teach them to call out loudly “passing on the left!” as they approach folks on the path.) Young anglers learn to joys of fishing and their first catch—sometimes little bluegills and other times big bass.
Visitors can enter May Watts Park to trek its .89-mile trail through the park and around the pond from Oakton, Whispering Hills and Sequoia roads in the Countryside and West Wind subdivisions.
Be prepared to see anglers, seagulls, great blue heron, egrets, double-crested cormorants, ducks, geese, squirrels, chipmunks, coyote, deer and maybe even a muskrat among the wildlife and many native Illinois birds that don’t migrate.
Buddy up with a friend to hit the trail and observe the school playground with its bright yellow buddy bench that’s inscribed with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
‘The only way to have a friend is to be one.’ RWE
Naperville is blessed with more than 130 natural park settings throughout the city where every season provides time to observe wildlife during quiet walks through neighborhoods or along the Riverwalk.
Just remember, whatever the season and whatever the park, let wildlife be wild. Let the ecosystem thrive. Keep waterways clean. Never litter. Encourage natural migration by keeping human food and snacks away from wildlife—especially ducks and geese.
Note also that the May Watts Trail is a short hike and a clear shot from the nature trail named for another Naperville activist, Marjorie Osborne. Lake Osborne is accessible from both Aurora Avenue and Oswego Road.
Imagine what May Theilgaard Watts and Marjorie Osborne would think of these two beautiful natural settings with trails named in their honor.
Naperville is blessed with park settings and forest preserves that give visitors a chance to feel as through they’re “a million miles from Monday,” to use a slogan from an ad campaign to promote Illinois back in the mid-1990s.
Today is Tuesday and next Monday is the first day of autumn.
Perhaps sing “America the Beautiful” as seasons change. The first two stanzas of the inspiring words written in 1893 by Katharine Lee Bates stand high on a monument at Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains near Colorado Springs. Yet the words may apply anytime you surround yourself with the great outdoors anywhere in the United States of America.
Seize peaceful moments to see nature run its course now, this autumn, this winter and then some.
Thanks for reading. —PN
