Lake Shelbyville, Illinois

Where it sits

The dam sits at the north edge of Shelbyville on Route 16, and the lake runs north from there for most of the way to Sullivan, spanning Shelby and Moultrie counties. Findlay is on the west shore roughly midway, with Eagle Creek State Park below it; Wolf Creek State Park faces Eagle Creek from the east shore, eight miles northwest of Windsor. Decatur, Mattoon, Charleston and Effingham are each about half an hour from one end of the lake or the other, and Springfield and Champaign a little over an hour.

The Corps built the dam through the 1960s and finished it in 1970, for flood control on the Kaskaskia first and recreation second. The project office and visitor center are on the east side of the dam, and that office — not a marina, not a realtor — is the authority on closures, pool level and what is allowed on the shore.

On the water

There are three marinas: Sullivan Marina at the north end, Findlay Marina in the middle, and Lithia Springs Marina on the east shore a few minutes north of Shelbyville, all three run by the same family company. Between them they rent covered and open slips, fuel, pontoons, party barges, fishing boats, kayaks and houseboats, and two of them have a bar and grill on the water. Public ramps are spread around the lake at the Corps recreation areas and both state parks.

The Corps keeps three swimming beaches — Dam West, Wilborn Creek and Sullivan Beach — and Wolf Creek State Park has a fourth. Nineteen life-jacket loaner stations ring the lake, which tells you something about how the Corps thinks about a reservoir this size: it is big water, and the wind gets up.

Fishing

The state fisheries biologist rates white bass and white crappie excellent, and walleye, sauger, muskie, largemouth bass, black crappie and channel catfish very good. Walleye and sauger are stocked every year by the hundreds of thousands; the muskie program has rebuilt a real fishery, with the biggest fish escaping over the dam and turning the tailwater below the spillway into a muskie spot in its own right. Striped bass and smallmouth were tried and did not take, and the state says so plainly.

Crappie draw the most boats in spring and fall. The lake has little aquatic vegetation and the Corps and the state have been sinking structure and catfish spawning boxes to make up for it — which is worth knowing if you fish, because the fish are where the structure is, not where the shoreline looks fishy.

Camping and the parks

The Corps runs five campgrounds — Bo Wood near Sullivan, Lithia Springs and Opossum Creek near Shelbyville, and Coon Creek and Lone Point on the west shore near Findlay — plus two group camps and the year-round Okaw Bluff houses. Every site is reservation-only on recreation.gov, up to six months ahead; there is no first-come camping at the federal grounds any more. Bo Wood and Lithia Springs run the longest season, from mid-April into late October.

The state adds Eagle Creek State Park on the west shore, with its campground, trails and an eighteen-hole golf course that is open even though the state resort beside it has been closed for years, and Wolf Creek State Park on the east, with wooded campgrounds, a beach and equestrian trails. Hidden Springs State Forest lies south of the lake toward Strasburg with primitive camping. The full list of every campground, cabin, lodge, motel and rental around the lake is on the "Where to stay" page.

The towns

Each end of the lake has a county seat behind it. Shelbyville, at the dam, has the hospital, the courthouse, a boutique hotel and a downtown that has seen real reinvestment, and the General Dacey Trail runs from downtown out to the Dam West recreation area and the overlook. Sullivan, at the north end, has the manufacturers, the Little Theatre on the Square and Wyman Park. Findlay is the village in the middle with the marina and the golf course at its back; Windsor is the town on the east side with a grocery store, a library and the Harvest Picnic. Shelbyville, Sullivan and Windsor each have their own guide on this site.

Buying near the lake

Because the Corps holds the shoreline, what is for sale is lake-access property: houses and lots in the subdivisions around Findlay and Eagle Creek, north of Shelbyville toward Lithia Springs, on the Sullivan side near Bo Wood, and around Windsor toward Wolf Creek. Some have a view across Corps ground to the water; most trade on how few minutes it is to a ramp or a slip. A seasonal marina slip does the job a private dock would do elsewhere, and the slip lists are long — get on one early.

Before you assume anything about a dock, a path to the water or clearing trees for a view, find the Corps boundary line on the survey and ask the project office what the shoreline rules allow. The federal line is not the same as the lot line, and the rules on federal ground are the Corps' to set. A good local agent has had that conversation many times; it is one of the reasons to use one here.

The trade, stated plainly: a private lake sells you frontage and a dock at a private price. Lake Shelbyville sells you a house a few minutes from big public water that nobody can build on, at a central Illinois price. For a lot of buyers that is the better deal, and it is the one this office has been making since 1973.