Name This Peoria Landmark

Peoria Landmark #337

Approximately 45 minutes (by car) south of Peoria you will find Smokey The Bear and Sand Ridge State Park. Nearby attractions are Spring Lake and Lake Chautauqua.

For those who think central Illinois is one big corn field, Sand Ridge State Forest will come as a very pleasant surprise. The forest is an island in a sea of agriculture. Just minutes southwest of Peoria, this 7,200-acre, the largest of Illinois’ State Forests, boasts sweeping expanses of native oak-hickory, extensive plantations of pine, sprawling open fields, grasslands, and completely unique sand prairies. For a refreshing, invigorating taste of unspoiled nature and an opportunity to experience truly unique environment, Sand Ridge State Forest is ideal.

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Fifteen thousand years ago the flood waters of the last glaciation period receded down the Illinois River valley leaving a vast deposit of sand near Pekin to down past Beardstown and as far west as San Jose. A subsequent period of extreme dryness and warmth invited plants and animals of the southwestern states to extend their range. Shifting winds sculpted 100 foot high sand dunes evident today as the now wooded ridges for which the forest is named.

In 1939, 5504 acres of this forested tract was purchased by the state to be managed by the Division of Forestry as an experimental forest. The Civilian Conservation Corps planted pine trees to control erosion and demonstrate the viability of growing a commercial tree crop in sandy soil. The current 2492 acres of pine plantations are still producing sawlog-size timber for Illinois’ future needs. The native oak-hickory forest is selectively utilized for a firewood cutting program. There are special times throughout the year when firewood collection is allowed.

In 1971, the Division of Land Management took over management of the site and the area became known as Sand Ridge State Forest. Today, the forest covers 7500 acres — 3996 acres of native oak-hickory forest, 2492 acres of pine, and the rest in open fields and sand prairies.

- http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks/r4/sand.htm

The PBS show Illinois Adventure featured Sand Ridge in one of its episodes. The video is available to watch {here}. An interesting tidbit I learned from the video is there are cactus in the park. I’ve been there twice and haven’t seen any, but I’m going to keep my eyes open next time I’m there.

Peoria Landmark #336

I’ll admit to not knowing much about Chilli, but I followed the signs to the business district and ended up on 2nd Street. It was quaint and had some great old store fronts, including the Town Theater (shown on the right in the above photo.) Located just north of the City of Peoria along the Illinois River, their slogan is “Where the Rails Cross the River”

Chillicothe’s history from the city website:

The first settlers located in Chillicothe in the 1830’s, about the same period the Native Americans moved out of the area. River transportation provided the impetus for the community’s growth. Flour milling was the initial industry, but the inns, and eventually shops and stores were the nucleus around which the community was formally established. Chillicothe, originally platted in 1836, reclines lazily along the Illinois River on ground just high enough to escape the river when it floods.

Chillicothe was formally incorporated in 1873, which instigated a period of prosperous growth. The last turn of the century was a very vibrant period in the Chillicothe River Valley. The river and the railroads readily transported agricultural products to market, and imported merchandise, shoppers and visitors to our business district.

Railroads have been a major factor in the growth of Chillicothe. The Rock Island Railroad began operations in the 1840’s with service to Chicago by the 1850’s. By the late 1880’s, Santa Fe service from Chicago to the West Coast was operating on a regular Basis. The Railroad Bridge crossing the Illinois River at Chillicothe, built in 1931, has a span, 440 feet long, fixed truss, the longest in the entire Santa Fe System.

Chillicothe has a weekly newspaper, the Chillicothe Times-Bulletin, owned by Gatehouse Media who also own the Peoria Journal Star and nearly every local paper you can think of.

The art deco Town Theater, according to Cinema Tour.com “was built in the 1920s and was called the Sunset Theatre. The name was changed in 1946 to the Town by then-owner, Kerasotes Theatres. The present owner is Vern Reynolds, who has done restoration work and repaired the marquee which is featured in the recently released book, ‘Popcorn Palaces’.”

According to Reynolds Theater.com, the Town Theater was purchased and refurbished in 1999 by Reynolds.

In 2009, the Chillicothe Optimists Club bought the “sixty year old movie theatre known as the “Town Theatre” in downtown Chillicothe”

Was it built in the 1920’s or late 1940’s?  I would tend to believe the organization that purchased it over a national website, but if anyone has any knowledge or additional information, I’d love to hear it.

Peoria Landmark #335

Lancer Says: That is the Marium Graff mural on the Born Paint building adjacent to the downtown ballpark. She is a great local artist that is going places.

Born Paint Company. 317 Walnut St. Peoria, Il 61605

Peoria Landmark #334

Thank you, Shannon, it is Riverbeach Dr, specifically looking south from the entrance to Riverbeach Town House Apartments (where I was honked at by someone trying to pull in to the parking lot.)

Make sure you check out Ed Sander’s Bald Eagle pictures taken from near here.

In looking up Rome, Il, I see they have a semi-famous native son in Wayne Neslon. He joined the Little River Band in 1980 and sang lead on their top ten hit song “The Night Owls.”

Peoria Landmark #333

This cute little guy, and his twin, sits atop the entrance pillars to the shuttered Peoria Castle Lodge, formerly known as the Radisson Castle Lodge, formerly known as Jumer’s Castle Lodge.

117 N. Western Ave.

Peoria Landmark #332

From the book “America’s Historic Stockyards: Livestock Hotels”

Meat packers or railroad company personnel organized many of the early stockyards, but Peoria’s beginning differed uniquely. Thomas Neill, a partner in the distilling firm of Wickert and Neill, had the idea to establish a stockyards, planning to save money by feeding animals the byproduct, or slop, from his distilleries.

The community of Peoria had originated a half-century earlier as a trading post on the banks of the Illinois River, and it grew when the Illinois and Michigan canal opened in 1840. The railroad had arrived in 1855.

Neill began his Peoria Union Stock Yards in 1874. The first large packing company to locate near Neill’s stockyards, Peoria Packing Company, opened in 1892. By 1900, Peoria ranked as the second-largest city in Illinois with a population of 50,000.

H.F. Embry and two partners, Talton Embry and B.E. Gregory, created a corporation on May 15, 1905. It leased the stockyards operation and changed the name slightly to the Peoria Union Stock Yards Company. The new incorporators eventually bought out the operations in 1923.

Hogs continued to predominate on the farms surrounding Peoria, making the yards there the eighth largest hog market in the United States in 1952 with 1,161,157 receipts. Peoria later ranked sixth in hog receipts when the Chicago Union Stockyards closed in 1971; some of the  business moved to Peoria. In 1992 stockholders of the Embry family sold out to a group of three new owners headed by Terry Sewell, one of the commission agents on the market. Sewell and Ronald Jenkins remained partners as the new century got underway and received a total of 215,663 animals, predominantly hogs, in the year 2001.

While looking up information, I also found this is interesting tidbit…

There were two small areas near the Illinois River, one on the north end close to what is now WABCO and on the south end on the grounds of the Peoria Stock Yards, which were used for Catholic burial during the time from 1850 to 1860. However, the history of Catholic Cemeteries as we know them today begins in the year 1865 with the development of St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

Peoria Union Stockyards. 86 South Street. Peoria, Il 61602

Peoria Landmark #331

Located in the parking lot adjacent to Hooters on Peoria’s Riverfront. Sculpted by Nita Sunderland.

I went back down and brushed off the plaque… “Most of the components used in this monument are from the Franklin Street Bridge. The background panel was part of the original roadway surface, and the gears were salvaged from the lift mechanism that opened the bridge to allow boat traffic to pass {ice covered – can’t read. assuming it says ‘under’ or ‘through’}.”

The following photo comes from the book “Peoria: A Postcard History”

The caption reads “The above illustration is one of the final photos taken before the Franklin Street Bridge was demolished. This steel span was the answer to the city’s problem of salvaging what remained of the Franklin Street Bridge after the 1909 collapse. Photographer James P. Carr knew the value of pursuing a photographic view of the draw bridge before it was removed in the mid-1990’s.”