Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Here's the complete broadcast of a gentle and meditative program spotlighting the natural wildlife and various flora and fauna within the city limits, Chicago's Secret Wilderness, on WTTW Channel 11. Your narrator is legendary Chicago stage actress Roslyn Alexander, and the voice of Studs Terkel is also heard reading the poetry of Carl Sandburg in the course of this program. Original Celtic harp music is performed by Sylvia Woods.

(NOTE: There are some tracking problems at various points in this recording but it does not render it unwatchable, not by a long shot)

Includes:

Opening shots of open spaces and various species including waterbirds, raccoons, birds flying, owls, foxes and deer - and the narrator indicating that this not in the open West or Southeast/Everglades marshes, but rather all within 45 minutes of downtown Chicago (punctuated by the occasional freight train passing by), followed by opening titles

Establishing aerial shot of the Chicago skyline, leading to a shot of said "secret wilderness," accessible through the expressways and more developed areas that surround it:

Beavers along the Des Plaines River chopping down trees near an oil tank, and building lodges and dams with them (hundreds of these animals in Cook County alone)

DuPage County's waterfall glen as fall approaches, with a Sandburg poem read by Studs

Birds (including blackbirds, grackles and hawks) gathering around trees in the fall on their way south for the winter, in a scene compared with a typical day at O'Hare Airport, as deer watch

A look at the white-tailed deer of the area (over 2,000 in Cook County alone)

Animals laying off high-bush cranberries - at first

A trip along the river, with the trees changing color in real time - and a flock of ducks gathering in one spot - or rather, decoys that don't fool any of them

A look at a flock of Canada geese

A history of the prairies, and reading from Louis Joliet (after whom the town in Illinois is named); as well as of the geology of Chicago

A visit to Sagawau Canyon

Transitioning to winter, and the white fallow deer, muskrats and birds in the area along the "winter prairie"

Des Plaines River's banks flooding thanks to melting snow and heavy rains in spring

Shots of prairie fires as a history of same is brought; it's about burning dead wood for preservation

Flowers and other plants blooming in springtime after the prairie fires subside

A look at a Queen Anne's lace and dogbane being eaten by a dogbane beetle, followed by various types of spring wildflowers

The red-bellied snake and its typical day, including hunting for screech owls - one of eight varieties in the Chicago area (and ten species of snakes)

A segment on the six varieties of turtles in Chicago, including Blandings and painted turtles (with toads nearby)

A look at red-wing blackbirds and more Canada geese, plus a snow goose

Going to summer, and the summer grass and other sights of green (more, as Roslyn notes, than numerous brands of paint)

An examination of the cat-tails on the prairies, and their varying degrees of edibility

Shots of the wilderness at daybreak, as the sun comes out, followed by a look at long-legged waterbirds, herons and egrets - and their "special protected place"

Prairie flowers growing next to electricity lines, plus compass plants, goldenrod (with aphids "snacking away"), blue stem grass and switch grass, and others that "put on their show" from early summer to late fall

Ending credits - including Produced by Marianne Duarte and written by her and Michael Hirsh, with Cinematography by Cal Langenberg. (also with a shoutout to the Little Red Schoolhouse - a treasured field trip destination)

"This land, with its rivers and woods, prairies and marshes, is a feast for the senses."

This aired on local Chicago TV on Wednesday, December 8th 1982 during the 8pm to 9pm timeframe (the premiere), or Sunday, December 12th 1982 during the 7pm to 8pm timeframe. (It was also re-run multiple times in 1983 and 1985, and then a final airing on Saturday, June 7th 1986 from 9pm to 10pm.)

About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:

The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings (70s to early 80s, mostly) recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved digitally. If you have any old 1970s videotapes recorded off of TV please email: tapes@fuzzy.tv Even though (mostly) short clips are displayed here, we preserve the entire broadcasts in our archives - the complete programs with breaks (or however much is present on the tape), for historical preservation. For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail tapes@fuzzy.tv Thank you for your help!