Jackson Park is hallowed ground for 1893 World’s Fair enthusiasts. To honor Earth Day, Friends of the Parks is sponsoring a clean-up day in Jackson Park and other Chicago parks on Saturday, April 26, 2025. This marks the 40th anniversary of Friends of the Parks’ citywide Earth Day cleanups.

Whether you love spending time in Jackson Park or have never before visited, we invite you to join us on a team of volunteers to clean up Jackson Park East. Register for the Jackson Park East team here. Cleanups are scheduled for 9 AM to noon, though local site captains may have adjusted times.

[If volunteer slots for this site fill, or if you’d like to see a different part of the former Columbian Exposition fairgrounds, you can register for a cleanup of Jackson Park South or Midway Plaisance. After registering, you should receive information about the meeting location.]

Will you find a souvenir coin from the Columbian Exposition among the leaves? Will you find a relic piece of staff from a building or statue in the dirt beside the lagoon? We doubt it! But you will see other vestiges—big and small—from the 1893 World’s Fair hiding in plain sight. As a thank-you gift to those who join us, we’ll throw in a souvenir map of the former fairgrounds overlaid with a modern map of Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. Join us.

Laborers working to landscape Jackson Park in 1891, near the bridge connecting the Lagoon and the North Pond. [Image from World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated, June 1891.]