Starved Rock State Park is located in north central Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois river. Sandstone bluffs rise a couple hundred feet above the banks of the dammed river. The bedrock was originally uncovered when a glacial flood scoured the landscape at the end of the last ice age. Legend tells of a group of Illiniwek Indians who starved at this location after being trapped on the rocks by another tribe. Some time later, the area was home to a French colonial outpost (which is now long-gone).