Name This Peoria Landmark

The Love Shack

Katney: “There are a couple of buildings back in the woods off of Rt 29 owned by the park district – if I remember right this is the smaller one and it is pretty scary inside.”

I didn’t look inside.  As Katney said, it looked pretty scary inside and I wasn’t about to find out what was in there!  If someone would like to go down and check it out for themselves, it’s on the south side of the barn (NTPL#219) located off of SanKoty and Galena Rd.

Both ends of a long forgotten Peoria Park District soccer field.

Check out StfRon’s GeoCache of this place. Pretty cool.

A sign at the trail entrance says Wildlife Preserve, Parcel #5157, Peoria Park District. To get here, pull into SanKoty Ln, just down from Gardner Ln off Galena Rd. Park on the side of the road just where SanKoty curves. To the south you will see a small break in an old fence. That is the beginning of the trail.

Aerial view of what is officially parcel# 1414100008, via PeoriaGIS:

You can relax, Billy, although I understand your frustration, I’m almost certain that this was never a sanctioned Park District soccer field.

A big thank you to Scott O’Brien for taking these photos and sending me off to a place I previously never knew existed.

A view from the windshield.

It’s a view from a windshield because after driving past the 12th “no trespassing” sign, I didn’t really feel like getting out of the truck to take more pics. Besides, all I was trying to do was turn around without getting stuck in a mud road on a rainy day.

I had not heard of this place until last week, but according to their outdated website, they’ve been around since 1959.

Reminds me of a song…

Nothing special here. Just a picture of a field.

Illinois American Water owns property on both sides of Galena Road just north of Forest Park Road. This photo is of the field on the east side of Galena at San Koty Drive. [Google map] To the best of my knowledge the buildings in the distance are owned by Il-Amer Water from which they pump water from the Sankoty Aquifer.

A map from 1954 shows the boundaries of the property:

According to Wikipedia, “The Sankoty sand serves as one of the most extensive aquifers in the State. The Sankoty sand frequently is 100 feet thick and tends to lie below elevations of 520 to 530 feet (above sea level). It has been used as a water source, in the Peoria area, since at least 1892.”

Thanks to Josh Harris for confirming and JW from PeoriaHistory.com for his behind the scenes help.

For those who are interested, some additional reading:

A geological study of the Illinois river valley including the Sankoty. [here]

A ‘remedial geography lesson’ from CJ Summers relating to the Sankoty Aquifer and it’s relation to the proposed toxic landfill expansion in Pottstown. [here]

Illinois American Water Sankoty Station EPA Fact Sheet. [here]