CAMPANAC.Powered by public lands intelligenceMore Than Just Parks

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers · IL

Opossum Creek

Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:14 UTC

Why it’s closed, and what’s open near here Tell me when it comes back

Right now: Closedrecreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend, read 16:14 UTC
A night: $16–$32When it reopens, per site
Sites: 70In the agency’s record

Photos · USACE

100 ftLongest rig

660 ftElevation

561 ftWater · Lake Shelbyville

1 miNE of Shelbyville, IL

41%Tree cover

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices

In the agency’s own words

Opossum Creek Recreation Area has a quiet campground that sits on the western shore of Lake Shelbyville in the heart of central Illinois. The lake and surrounding land offer outdoor activities for people of all ages, including fishing, swimming, picnicking and simply relaxing. Visit the Lake Shelbyville, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for News Releases, Event Information, & Emergency Updates. https://www.facebook.com/LakeShelbyvilleUSACE Visit it our USACE Lake Shelbyville Website for more information on Lake Shelbyville. https://www.mvs.usace.army. Keep reading

mil/Missions/Recreation/Lake-Shelbyville/ Recreation Lake Shelbyville offers a multitude of fishing opportunities for catfish, crappie, largemouth bass, muskie, walleye, white bass and bluegill. Opossum Creek provides a fishing pond for children age 12 and under with an accessible fishing dock. There are also several other ponds with farmed fish available around the lake. Hunting areas located within a short drive offer numerous game species, including quail, rabbit, pheasant, deer, dove, turkey, waterfowl and woodcock.

Facilities

Opossum Creek Campground is 100% reservable. Most of the campsites have electricity and accommodate both RVs and tents, though there are several tent-only non-electric sites as well. Flush toilets, showers, a playground and dump station help create a comfortable camping environment.

Natural Features

Opossum Creek overlooks the lake shore and provides plenty of shade. Oak and hickory are the lake region's dominant tree species. Foliage turns a variety of red, orange, purple and yellow each fall, while prairie flowers dot the landscape in spring and summer. Numerous species of songbirds, shorebirds, waterfowl and raptors inhabit the lake area, as do mammals such as cottontail rabbit, white-tail deer, gray and fox squirrel, muskrat and mink.

Nearby Attractions

Wolf Creek State Park, Woods Lake Waterfowl Refuge and Okaw Bluff Wetlands Complex are popular locations for wildlife watching, birding and hunting near Lake Shelbyville.

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

What the agency tells you

Rule

Attention – Customers who do not arrive at the campground by 4 p.m. on the day after scheduled arrival date will be No Showed. Please Review the R1S No Show policy for complete details.

Rule

Must check-in at fee booth during normal operation hours.

Rule

Must have a reservation prior to setting up on site.

Everything else this campground posts · 7

Rule

Tent camping is always permitted, but not recommended for some sites

Rule

One RV and three tents, or four tents per site

Rule

Two RVs and six tents, or eight tents per group site

Rule

This campground has first-come, first-served sites

Rule

The banks are steep and it may be difficult to get to the water from many sites

Rule

No outside firewood allowed; obtain or purchase firewood at or near your camping destination and burn it on-site; firewood can carry invasive insects and diseases that destroy forests; learn more

Rule

Don't Move Firewood: Protect your forests from tree-killing pests by buying your firewood locally and burning it on-site. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Source: recreation.gov facility notices, quoted verbatim · Sep 9, 2026

Tents and rigs

Sites: 70 · 17 tent-only
Hookups: 64 electric, 20 water, 18 sewer
Longest rig: 100 ft
Paved pads: 4 of 70
Accessible sites: None listed
Pets: Allowed
Campfires: Allowed, barring fire bans
Shade: Every site

Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets: Flush Toilets; “…tent-only non-electric sites as well. Flush toilets, showers, a playground and dump station help create…”
Dump station: Yes; recreation.gov lists “Dump Station”
Playground: Yes
Stay limit: 14 nights; recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Source: Stated in the agency description · Aug 23, 2026

Water, toilets and showers: read from the agency description, shown above · Sep 12, 2026

Around the campground

On the water: Lake, Creek; Boating; Fishing; Visitor center; Wildlife viewing
Night sky · 8th darkest of 30 in IL: Bortle 4

Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Nothing to book until it reopensread 16:14 UTC

recreation.gov lists every site closed this weekend

Every one of the next thirty nights is in recreation.gov’s record and not one site is being offered on any of them. That’s a campground closed or not yet released for booking, not a sold-out one.

Max stay14 nights2-night minimum on weekendsthe facility record

A night, when it reopens$16–$32plus $8 to reserve, once per bookingthe agency’s rate schedule

If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule

Runs itU.S. Army Corps of EngineersBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record

What’s open near here

Tell me when it reopens

Watch for it to come back

One email when the agency reopens it, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.

We check the agency’s own record once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time it stops saying closed.

Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.

Every line of the receipt · 14

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Army Corps of Engineers

A night, when it reopens$16–$32

Standard Electric$16

Tent Only Electric$16

Standard Electric$20

Standard Electric$24

Standard Electric$32

These are next season’s rates, May 20, 2027 to Sep 5, 2027. The campground is between seasons now.

The booking feerecreation.gov

Reservation fee, booked online$8

One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.

Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.

If your plans changerecreation.gov

Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10

Cancellation fee$10

Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night

No-show$20 + your first night

Who keeps the booking fee

The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →

How we know this receipt · 4

Sign price: recreation.gov facility rate schedule, quoted as the agency publishes it · Sep 10, 2026

Booking fee, change fee, cancellation fee, no-show: Rules and Reservation Policies, Recreation.gov, the published fee schedule, curated by hand into lib/reservation-fee-schedule.json (9 rows, each carrying its own verbatim sentence). The publisher states these policies were last updated September 2019. · Sep 9, 2026

Who keeps the booking fee: Recreation.gov facility policy text, Dead Swede Campground (facility 234221) · Not on the national policy page. This is agency policy text recreation.gov publishes on individual campground pages; this site holds it verbatim on 45 active campgrounds (campground_rules.cancellation_description, scripts/load-facility-rules.mjs). · Sep 9, 2026

The contract: Reservation Gods: Who Stole Our Campsites and Sold Them Back to Us, More Than Just Parks, April 2025 · Apr 1, 2025

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Why this page can’t say why

recreation.gov lists every site at Opossum Creek closed this Friday and Saturday night. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so this page can’t say why, and it won’t fill the gap with a guess. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one: the reservations its record still carries were taken before the sites were closed.

Closure: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers status record · Oct 17, 2026

There’s no notice to quote and no reason to argue with, so this page offers you the watch and the list below, and no letter.

Open within 150 miles · 4

The agency’s own word that these are open, not our reading of a season.

Camp Cadiz CampgroundShawnee National Forest · 132 mi · walk-up
Pine Hills CampgroundShawnee National Forest · 138 mi · walk-up
North Face LoopHoosier National Forest · 145 mi
Catbrier LoopHoosier National Forest · 146 mi

Open near here: Agency-published status, in the CAMPANAC campground index · Oct 17, 2026

recreation.gov availability, read 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

70 sites · which ones have room · the site map

The sites, ranked

from 63 mapped sites

73 ftbetween you and the next site, typically

Most room81 159 ft43 148 ft38 141 ft13 121 ft37 117 ft

Least room67 48 ft69 48 ft07 49 ft

Source: Derived by CAMPANAC from recreation.gov per-site coordinates (nearest-neighbor distance) · Oct 12, 2026

All 70 sites

68 of 70 sites located

Tent only17RV / electric46Type not stated5

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 32 34 35 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 54 55 56 57 58 59 63 64 67 68 69 71 73 74 75 76 77 79 81

Aerial · Esri World Imagery

Sites: recreation.gov (RIDB), coordinates as published · Aug 23, 2026

Imagery: Esri World Imagery

SleepsTakes aUp to

Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 68 of the 70 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.

The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 64 of the 70 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.


OPOSSUM CREEK	00	type not stated	50 ft	50 amp		577 ft	1,725 ft
OPOSSUM CREEK	01	type not stated	50 ft	50 amp		542 ft	1,697 ft
OPOSSUM CREEK	02	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp	68 ft	500 ft	1,660 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	03	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp	51 ft	477 ft	1,632 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	04	standard electric	70 ft	50 amp	51 ft	473 ft	1,605 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	05	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp	70 ft	510 ft	1,523 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	06	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	70 ft	526 ft	1,490 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	07	standard electric	75 ft	50 amp	49 ft	542 ft	1,427 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	08	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	49 ft	535 ft	1,393 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	09	standard electric	45 ft	50 amp	61 ft	539 ft	1,346 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	10	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	62 ft	543 ft	1,303 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	11	standard electric	60 ft	30 amp	109 ft	384 ft	1,302 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	12	tent only electric		20 amp	116 ft	234 ft	1,399 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	13	tent only electric		20 amp	121 ft	181 ft	1,481 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	14	tent only electric		20 amp	115 ft	202 ft	1,466 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	15	tent only electric		20 amp	81 ft	248 ft	1,350 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	16	tent only electric		20 amp	97 ft	201 ft	1,383 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	17	tent only electric		20 amp	81 ft	270 ft	1,292 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	18	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	97 ft	349 ft	1,284 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	19	standard electric	55 ft	50 amp	70 ft	407 ft	1,236 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	20	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp	56 ft	466 ft	1,192 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	21	standard electric	60 ft	30 amp	56 ft	520 ft	1,137 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	22	standard electric	35 ft	30 amp	81 ft	460 ft	1,091 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	23	standard electric	100 ft	50 amp	99 ft	207 ft	1,022 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	24	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	99 ft	192 ft	1,012 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	25	tent only electric		20 amp	70 ft	89 ft	1,128 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	26	tent only electric		20 amp	70 ft	145 ft	1,076 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	27	tent only electric		20 amp	114 ft	189 ft	1,052 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	28	tent only electric		20 amp	93 ft	87 ft	940 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	29	tent only electric		20 amp	93 ft	127 ft	902 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	32	standard electric	75 ft	30 amp	116 ft	463 ft	978 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	34	standard electric	70 ft	30 amp	101 ft	574 ft	1,033 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	35	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp	78 ft	674 ft	1,017 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	37	tent only electric		20 amp	118 ft	319 ft	704 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	38	tent only electric		20 amp	141 ft	168 ft	596 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	39	standard electric	50 ft	50 amp	107 ft	158 ft	540 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	40	tent only electric		20 amp	77 ft	99 ft	621 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	41	tent only electric		20 amp	77 ft	97 ft	653 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	42	tent only electric		20 amp	91 ft	120 ft	636 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	43	tent only electric		20 amp	148 ft	187 ft	496 ft	$16
OPOSSUM CREEK	44	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	118 ft	220 ft	588 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	45	standard electric	55 ft	30 amp	61 ft	329 ft	664 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	46	standard electric	50 ft	30 amp	61 ft	380 ft	701 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	47	standard electric	40 ft	30 amp	55 ft	668 ft	984 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	48	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	55 ft	719 ft	1,038 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	49	standard electric	55 ft	30 amp	50 ft	691 ft	1,108 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	50	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	50 ft	670 ft	1,157 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	51	standard electric	60 ft	50 amp	62 ft	656 ft	1,215 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	52	standard electric	45 ft	50 amp	67 ft	641 ft	1,271 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	54	standard electric	65 ft	50 amp	66 ft	642 ft	1,393 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	55	type not stated	55 ft	50 amp		605 ft	1,448 ft
OPOSSUM CREEK	56	type not stated	55 ft	50 amp		589 ft	1,486 ft
OPOSSUM CREEK	57	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	86 ft	674 ft	1,559 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	58	standard electric	45 ft	50 amp	86 ft	603 ft	1,565 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	59	standard electric	35 ft	30 amp	80 ft	687 ft	1,456 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	60	type not stated	55 ft	50 amp
OPOSSUM CREEK	62	standard electric	55 ft	50 amp				$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	63	standard electric	55 ft	30 amp	83 ft	739 ft	1,359 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	64	standard electric	55 ft	30 amp	68 ft	615 ft	1,491 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	67	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	48 ft	763 ft	1,300 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	68	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	68 ft	645 ft	1,433 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	69	standard electric	35 ft	30 amp	48 ft	781 ft	1,265 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	71	standard electric	35 ft	30 amp	66 ft	679 ft	1,376 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	73	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	55 ft	774 ft	1,223 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	74	standard electric	60 ft	30 amp	52 ft	705 ft	1,326 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	75	standard electric	30 ft	30 amp	73 ft	812 ft	1,148 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	76	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	52 ft	703 ft	1,284 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	77	standard electric	40 ft	30 amp	73 ft	784 ft	1,077 ft	$16–$32
OPOSSUM CREEK	79	type not stated	45 ft	30 amp		592 ft	876 ft
OPOSSUM CREEK	81	standard electric	45 ft	30 amp	159 ft	533 ft	832 ft	$16–$32

Price: Derived by CAMPANAC: each site takes the per-night rate this campground publishes for the site’s own site type (recreation.gov rate schedule). recreation.gov publishes no per-campsite fee, and a site whose type carries no published rate is left blank rather than called free · Sep 11, 2026

25 of 70 listed

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number

Coordinate39.44556, -88.77250

The mapSee it on the map

The driveDirections ↗

The phone217-774-3951

The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Also near here

Coon Creek (IL)0.7 mi

Lithia Springs1.0 mi

Lone Point1.8 mi

Lone Point Group Camp1.9 mi

Wilborn Creek (Group Camp)9.7 mi

Forrest W. Bo Wood11 mi

Getting there

From Shelbyville, Illinois, take State Route 128 north for 3.5 miles. Turn right onto County Road 1650 N. Continue nearly a mile to County Road 1880 E. Turn right and travel 0.5 mile to County Road 1600 N. Turn right again and drive one mile into the Opossum Creek facility.

Directions: Driving directions as the agency wrote them · Sep 9, 2026

Source: Recreation.gov data (RIDB), full extract · Aug 23, 2026

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight37°Mostly Clear

Saturday59°Patchy Frost then Sunny

Saturday Night32°Clear then Areas Of Frost

Sunday66°Areas Of Frost then Sunny

NWS forecast for Shelbyville, IL

Source: National Weather Service, ILX forecast office · Oct 17, 2026

Typical weather

Typical October night 45°F, day 67°F.

Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.

90°32°10°

Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more

A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.

Measured at: SHELBYVILLE DAM, IL (USC00117876), 3 miles away and at about the same elevation

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly normals · Sep 8, 2026

The land, and who answers for it

who answers for it

Who answers for this land

Opossum Creek is in Illinois’s 15th congressional district. Its representative, Mary Miller (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Source: U.S. Census district boundaries and the MTJP Congressional Public Lands Score

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from

Right now: recreation.gov lists every site here closed on Friday and Saturday night (read 16:14 UTC). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has published no closure notice we hold, so the reason isn’t on this page. A closed night isn’t a sold-out one, and the reservations the record still carries predate the closure. That reading is ours, off the agency’s own booking record.

Sites on recreation.gov: recreation.gov’s own month availability payload for this facility, asked for October 2026, November 2026 and July 2027. It names 64 of the 70 campsites the agency files here, and every one of them carries an answer either way. A campground nobody has read carries no answer at all, never a no. · Oct 11, 2026

Elevation: USGS 3DEP elevation point query at this campground’s coordinate · Sep 7, 2026

Tree cover: NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC), one 30 m cell at this coordinate, taken as the median across the 68 campsites here that carry a reading · Sep 9, 2026

Water: USGS National Hydrography Dataset, nearest perennial lake, reservoir, river or stream to this campground’s coordinate · Sep 8, 2026

Night sky: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate: 0.6 mcd/m² of artificial all-sky glow, ranked against the 30 rated federal campgrounds in Illinois · Sep 8, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Cell signal: the Army Corps’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.

Nearest town: U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line 2024 places, measured by CAMPANAC to the town boundary; population is the ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimate · Sep 9, 2026