Shawnee National Forest

The Shawnee National Forest is a United States National Forest located in the Ozark and Shawnee Hills of Southern Illinois, United States. Administered by the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, it consists of approximately 289,000 acres of federally managed lands. In descending order of land area it is located in parts of Pope, Jackson, Union, Hardin, Alexander, Saline, Gallatin, Johnson, and Massac counties. Forest headquarters are located in Harrisburg, Illinois. There are local ranger district offices in Jonesboro and Vienna. The Shawnee National Forest is also the single largest publicly owned body of land in the state of Illinois. It is considered part of Southern Illinois, and is south of the St. Louis, Missouri, and Metro East areas, in area code 618. Portions of it are in the far south area of Illinois known as Little Egypt. Cities in or near the area are Carbondale, Illinois, Marion, Illinois, and Cairo, Illinois.