Facebook Archives

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 9: A very popular place

By Carol Flynn

The Beverly Hills Preserve, renamed the Dan Ryan Woods (DRW) in 1924, was a popular place from the beginning. It influenced growth and development in the area. Real estate agents used the preserve advantageously in advertisements, even giving the name “Beverly Woods” to the neighborhood around the preserve.

Early sports facilities included baseball diamonds, tennis courts and a cinder track. Horseback riding was very popular and there were stables in the area where visitors could rent horses and ponies. For winter sports, there was a 30-foot ski jump, toboggan slides, and flooded baseball diamonds for ice skating.

At one point, there was talk of establishing a public golf course. The small patch of land north of 83rd Street bordered by the train tracks and Western Avenue was purchased in the early 1920s with this in mind, but no golf course was built.

Instead, the DRW were made one of the twelve free tourist camps for automobile travelers in Cook County.

By the early 1920s, there were over nine million automobiles and trucks in the U.S. This new means of transportation offered people more freedom to travel and road trips became very popular. New roads were built and old ones like Western Avenue were improved. Tourist camps popped up all over the country to provide camping sites.

Western Avenue was part of the Dixie Highway, a system of roads started in 1915 that connected the northern states with the South, ending in Miami, Florida. The DRW were strategically located along the Dixie Highway.

In 1923-25, Chicago Tribune articles noted the extensive use of the DRW by motoists. “Deluxe” facilities included a log cabin shelter house with lounge areas and fire places; showers, toilets and laundry tubs; and gas cook stoves. Throughout the preserve, tables and benches, water and firewood supplies, and “sanitary equipment” could be found. The DRW could accommodate 600 cars.

In addition to camping, the FPCC allowed local farmers to graze their cows on forest preserve land, and allowed people to have gardens in the preserves. Eventually, camping, grazing and gardening were all discontinued because they proved to be more destructive than beneficial to the preserves.

From spring through fall, hundreds of events were held in the DRW, including picnics, weddings, sports competitions, graduations, retirement parties, church socials, school outings, nature classes, Scouting activities, dances, concerts and political rallies. Associations holding conventions in Chicago often included an outing to DWR. The newspapers covered everything from very small events, like a birthday party for a six year old boy, to very large ones with thousands of attendees.

Possibly the largest event in DRW history, and certainly one of the most prestigious, was the 1925 Democratic rally that featured Alfred Emanuel “Al” Smith (1873-1944), attended by over 100,000 people. Smith, elected Governor of New York four times, was an influential leader in the Progressive Era, achieving a wide range of reforms. He improved the conditions for factory workers and for women and children in the workforce, and he condemned social injustices like lynchings and other racial violence. He was an opponent of Prohibition, recognizing that a nationwide ban on alcohol could never be enforced.

The rally in DRW was the kick-off for Smith’s campaign to run for U.S. President in 1928. On Sept 27th, he traveled from the Blackstone Hotel downtown on Michigan Avenue to the DRW in a motorcade of hundreds of autos filled with his supporters, accompanied by a detail of motorcycle police.

At DRW, Smith spoke from a make-shift wooden platform about inefficiencies in Washington and his proposals to cut spending. He stopped just short of announcing his presidential bid at the rally but it was understood that was the real purpose of the event.

Smith had made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination in 1924. He did win the nomination in 1928 but lost the presidential election to Herbert Hoover. He again sought the nomination in 1932 but lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Smith was the first Catholic to run for President. He mobilized Catholic women to vote for the first time after the 19th Amendment was enacted. It would take until 1960 for John F. Kennedy to be elected the first (and to date, only) Catholic President.

Next up: More on the early days of DRW.

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 10: More on the 1920s

By Carol Flynn

Throughout the 1920s, the newspapers carried hundreds of stories about the Dan Ryan Woods (DRW). Community groups did their part to make the woods an interesting place to visit.

The Beverly Hills Woman’s Club (formerly the Ridge Woman’s Club) adopted the train stations along the Rock Island line (now the Metra line) and the 91st Street entrance to the DRW and spent four years landscaping and beautifying the sites. The Club raised the funds for the materials and the labor was furnished by the railroad company.

The Club worked with the Cook County Board to establish a bird sanctuary at the edge of the forest preserve around 91st Street and Winchester Avenue. The sanctuary included fifty bird houses of all sizes and types built by local Boy Scouts and their fathers. The Club planned a banquet for the Scouts at which awards would be given for best and most unique houses.

On a snowy day in April of 1928, a dedication ceremony for a bronze plaque in a stone pillar installed in a “safety isle” near the 91st Street train station took place, attended by members of the Club and county and city officials. The plaque read: “The Beverly Hills Woman’s Club, through its Civic Improvement Committee, dedicates to the community the landscaping of the Beverly Hills railroad stations, Walden Park, the Rock entrance to the Forest Preserves, the bird sanctuary and isle of safety. 1924-1928.”

The plaque is long gone and all that remains is the decaying stone pillar.

Among the first employees to be hired for the preserve system were rangers, and a set of ordinances for the preserves was established in 1918.

In August of 1927, the Suburban Economist newspaper reported that “picnickers and lovers of the forest preserves will find a welcome protection from tramps and other undesirables in the establishment of the forest preserve police stations” at several locations, including DRW.

Under the supervision of Sergeant Arthur Woeks, six officers, including mounted and motorcycle policemen and one plainclothes man, made up the command at DRW. Their headquarters, which also doubled as a Red Cross station when large gatherings were scheduled, was set up in the reconditioned log cabin, the former shelter for campers, and telephone service was installed. There was no holding cell; anyone arrested would be taken to the Gresham station. The article reported that “the forest preserve cops” would combine “ranger duties” with their police beat.

Ranger duties included enforcement of the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) ordinances, as well as conservation and education. Directing campers, protecting wildlife and vegetation, preventing fires, and controlling crowds, traffic and parking were routine duties.

A few incidents of violent crime were reported in the forest preserves in the 1920s. A man was robbed of his car and money at gunpoint. Couples parked for “necking” were occasionally robbed.

Major concerns for safety and health were mentioned more often – providing clean water for drinking and swimming; preventing the spread of brush fires from untended camp and cooking sites.

One issue was preventing the illegal use of fireworks and firearms at Fourth of July outings in the preserves. A double danger was present here – injuries and fires. Every year, dozens of people were hurt on preserve land at private parties using fireworks. Even when the fireworks display was legal and supervised, there were accidents. In 1927, at an American Legion event inside a preserve, a defective skyrocket plunged into a pile of fireworks, setting them on fire and panicking 1000 spectators. Twenty-five people were burned or trampled. The FPCC often “banned” fireworks but people still did what they wanted to do. Finally, in 1935, FPCC officially banned fireworks and spent more effort enforcing the ban.

There was an occasional issue with “hobo shelters.” Homelessness was always an issue in a big city and the forest preserves offered a secluded spot for building lean-tos and setting up camps. Periodically, the FPCC would crack down and evict the squatters.

Hunting was not allowed in the preserves; they were considered refuges for wildlife, the property of the people. In the larger preserves, there were problems with poachers encroaching upon preserve territory during pheasant hunting season to take hundreds of birds illegally. In 1929, the FPCC rangers and highway police joined efforts to reduce poaching by patrolling the roads around the preserves.

Ranger duties included education programs. During the 1920s the FPCC produced a series of hand-colored lantern slides depicting images and scenes from the preserves. “Magic lanterns” were early image projectors that used hand-painted pictures on transparent glass plates, lenses, and a light source. Many of the slides showed the flora and fauna that could be encountered in the woods – trees, flowers, and animals – and were likely used for nature programs. Some of these slides are shared here.

Next installment: A park or a preserve?

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 11: Both a preserve and a park

By Carol Flynn

The Dan Ryan Woods (DRW) have always been a unique holding within the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC). The land is a small, isolated tract within the city, far removed from the “outer belt” of the other preserves.

Chicagoans recognized the need for parks and recreation space from the city’s earliest days. Within two years of being incorporated as a city in 1837, the first park, Dearborn Park, was established where the Cultural Center is now, at Washington Street and Michigan Avenue, which was part of the site of the original Fort Dearborn. A few years later came Washington Square, the celebrated free-speech forum now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Chicago was an urban leader in establishing city parks in the mid to late 1800s. This was primarily a response to the rapid growth in population from the influx of European immigrants, which resulted in overcrowding. Public health and “social hygiene” theories of the time believed that disease epidemics as well as social strife and crime all resulted from crowded city neighborhoods and tenements, and could be cured by sunlight, fresh air, and time spent in moral reflection. City parks were designed to help alleviate the congestion, thereby improving physical and mental health, and encouraging city residents, especially the new immigrants, to become good civic-minded citizens.

The forest preserves and the city parks were conceived with different but complementary purposes. The city parks were man-made and neighborhood based. Common features included playgrounds, manicured gardens, sports fields and courts, and field houses. Early playgrounds offered structured activities in rather barren settings. Later, the parks also became the settings for a world-class collection of fountains, monuments, and sculptures.

The forest preserves were envisioned as lands left in their natural state, a network of prairies, forests, wetlands, bluffs, streams, and lakes, encircling the city as sanctuaries for native plant and animal life. They were places where people could get away from the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoy fresh air and nature. They were often referred to as “the peoples’ country estate.”

Of course, there was plenty of cross-over. The preserves wound up with sports fields and warming houses and other man-made features, while parks began to emphasize a natural look, thanks to planners like Prairie School landscape architect Jens Jensen, who became superintendent of the West Park System. Jensen designed Crescent, Prospect and Depot (now Bohn) Parks in Morgan Park as well as landscaping some private homes in the area.

The land that Dan Ryan Woods is on almost became a city park instead of a preserve. The original owner, John B. Sherman, was the president of the South Park Commission. As was mentioned in a previous post, it was rumored he would leave this prime piece of land to the city to be turned into a park when he died in 1902. For whatever reason, that did not happen, and the land was purchased by Cook County in 1917 to become a preserve.

Because of its location, DRW combined the best of both worlds – a forest preserve with recreation activities, accessible by public transportation. Picnics were the most popular of FPCC events, and of all the preserves, DRW was ranked highest for usage for summer picnics.

In 1929, a Forest Preserve Advisory Committee developed a document, “Recommended Plans for Forest Preserves of Cook County, Illinois.” The Plans recommended that the Beverly Hills Preserve [by then its proper name was the Dan Ryan Woods] and two other preserves within city limits “be planted with care with forest stock, and used for the present as picnic groves for small and large groups.” The report stated that much planting was needed on these tracts.

Some of the forest preserves land was reclaimed farmland, including portions of DRW. A major undertaking of the FPCC was to replant these sections with trees to reestablish forested areas.

The Plans went on to report: “It is recommended that these three tracts be acquired by the [Chicago park] districts, as soon as possible, by friendly condemnation suits. These tracts are better suited for city park use than for forest preserves, and the resulting acres to be gained for forested lands, may be used to acquire other forested areas which form connections with the present preserves.”

By law, “condemnation,” or “eminent domain,” is the power/process by which the government can take private property for public use, giving just compensation to the owner of the land. The Plans were recommending that the city buy DRW from the county to use as a city park, and the county use the proceeds to buy additional land connected to the outer belt of preserves.

The Plans were adopted, and while they gave strategic direction to the FPCC for many years, the recommendation to make DRW a city park was not acted upon. Although this idea of a city park popped up periodically, the land has stayed with the FPCC as a preserve for over 100 years now.

As these 1929 Plans were being written and implemented, the country, indeed the world, was entering the Great Depression. This led to developments that gave DRW distinctive features still on display today.

Next installment: The Depression and its impact on DRW

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 12: Depression-era activities at DRW

By Carol Flynn

The U.S. stock market crash on Tuesday, October 29, 1929, was considered the start of the Great Depression, a worldwide economic downturn that lasted for a decade. Unemployment reached 25% in the U.S. and over 5,000 banks failed.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President in 1932, and he instituted programs known as the “New Deal” to stimulate demand and provide work and relief through government spending and oversight. Some of the agencies he set up became permanent, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission.

Other New Deal programs that provided relief and employment opportunities were discontinued in the 1940s following World War II. In the 1930s, projects through these agencies were completed in the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC), including Dan Ryan Woods (DRW).

The 1929 Plans of the FPCC called for improvements in many of the preserves, with funding coming from a bond issue for $2.5 million. DRW, one of the most widely used areas in the entire preserve system, was to receive $150,000 in improvements, including new comfort stations, a shelter house, playing fields and parking areas. The DRW plan was presented in a newspaper article designed to solicit support for the bonds.

In 1933, it was announced that a new frame field headquarters was completed in DRW. It was built from materials left over from an old barn on the property, perhaps from the original Sherman Farm. But the Depression was seriously affecting finances, and since only $500,000 had been raised by the bond issue, work was discontinued on FPCC projects.

The situation didn’t last long, however. Because it was well represented politically, the FPCC received state and federal funds from the National Park Service, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission. Above all, New Deal programs allowed the FPCC to embark on large projects to develop the preserves. The major “alphabet soup” federal agencies that provided services to the FPCC were the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

These programs provided mostly manual labor jobs for unemployed men. The CCC concentrated on development of natural resources, the CWA provided construction jobs through the hard winter of 1933-34, and the PWA provided contracts to private construction firms for large-scale projects. The WPA was a larger and more far-reaching agency, providing millions of jobs for public works projects, ranging from road and building construction to the arts and history projects.

The improvements and additions made to DRW during the 1930s included parking lots, ball fields, dance floors and a wading pool. The stone shelter house nestled into the Ridge north of 87th Street between the sledding hill and the former skiing hill was built by the CCC in 1935.

The most unique feature built during this time period was the ravine reinforcement and aqueduct system created in the woods south of 87th Street. This was the site of a natural drain, a geologic formation that allowed water from rain and melting snow to run off from higher to lower elevation. In this case, water from the top of the Ridge drained off to the east, where it formed marshes during the “wet seasons” and was eventually reabsorbed into the ground in the “dry seasons.”

The first ravine project in the early 1930s used relief labor and funding through the state to dig out a channel and line it with loose limestone flagstone. In Illinois, the workers were known as “Emmerson men,” after Governor Louis Lincoln Emmerson who served during the early Depression years (1928-32).

A few years later, the federal agencies got involved, and more formal plans were developed and projects completed. The detail of 1937 plans shows the features added in the 1930s, including the flagstone pedestrian underpass on 87th Street.

The projects provided much-needed jobs. Many of the men were in desperate situations, homeless, emaciated, and depressed. They lived in CCC camps set up in the forest preserves, where they were sheltered and fed, and paid $1 per day in wages.

Today’s FPCC materials describe the ravine project as follows: “In the south section of Dan Ryan, a series of stone aqueducts wind peacefully downhill through the site’s oak woodlands. Primarily built as drainage structures and erosion control features, they were constructed from limestone flagstone, adding a unique aesthetic feature to the site. Even today, when rain falls, the channels fill with water from the surrounding area. The water travels through the aqueducts to the lower eastern area of the preserve where it pools and percolates back into the ground.”

Some conservationists today say the aqueducts were not really a necessity, that nature was doing fine on her own, but the project did provide economic relief. Today the ravine makes for an interesting and pleasant hike in the south portion of DRW.

Next installment: “Necking” in the DRW

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 13: “Necking” in the woods

By Carol Flynn

Among the comments we received a few weeks ago when we started this series on the Dan Ryan Woods were these:

“We went there to make out in the 50s.”

“Went tobogganing there and a great make out place.”

Making out, necking, petting, spooning. These were just some of the terms used through the years as slang for “expressing romantic affection.” No matter what it was called, it was a popular reason for an evening’s visit to the Dan Ryan Woods (DRW).

The subject of “necking” received a fair amount of newspaper attention in the 1920s and ‘30s, the early years of the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC).

Automobiles offered new opportunities for necking, providing more privacy than, say, a movie theater or the front porch swing. But there were drawbacks here, also. In one case, a 16-year old boy “borrowed” his neighbor’s auto to take his 15-year old girlfriend for a ride. Becoming distracted by each other, they drove into a tree. Undaunted and apparently unharmed, they abandoned the auto and moved to a nearby bench, where the police found them. The boy wound at up at the juvenile detention center and the girl was taken home to her parents. One of several morals to this story was to not neck while driving.

Parking with lights off in dark, secluded spots along country roads also caused problems. A newspaper reported in 1928 that farmers could not tell if a car parked on the side of a road late at night meant a chicken thief was at work or if it was merely a couple engaged in necking, so they called the police just to be on the safe side. It was suggested something be done to “discourage lovers from choosing suspicious spots to park their cars.”

Forest preserves and parks seemed safe, private spots, but their use for nighttime romantic trysts was highly controversial. In Washington, D. C., Lt. Col. Ulysses S. Grant III, the Chicago-born grandson of President Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. Civil War General, was appointed director of public parks in the capitol from 1925 to 1933, giving him authority over the United States Park Police. He ordered a crackdown on necking within federal parks around the country.

Pointed out one newspaper columnist, “Nothing fosters 'necking' like prohibiting it. Prohibit it and it will come to be accepted as a smart and fashionable vice, indulged in not as an amorous experiment, but as a gesture for personal liberty.”

Chicago apparently had no specific ordinances or even guidelines covering “amorous experiments” so individual police officers made up their own rules. According to one Texas newspaper article, the Chicago chief of police said that a good police officer should be able to tell the difference between those necking in earnest true love, and those who were jelly beans and flappers just out for a good time. “Jelly beans” and “flappers” were slang terms for people who dressed and behaved trendily but had little else to recommend them. Police were instructed to send the jellies and flappers on their way. No verification in Chicago newspapers has been found for this story about the chief of police.

The FPCC had the same situation – police officers in the preserves made up their own rules. In 1927, Officer Nelson, stationed at the Deer Grove Preserve, said that his main responsibility on the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift was to act as a “necking censor.” Using his own discretion, he made the rule that young women had to be 20 years of age or older to neck in the woods. They were advised to bring their birth certificates with them.

But Charles G. “Cap” Sauers himself, the well-regarded general superintendent of the FPCC for 35 years (1929-1964), officially made necking in the preserves a tolerated, even welcomed, practice.

In 1939, Sauers guaranteed that visitors would not be blinded by prying flashlights or questioned by rangers if they followed two rules: they parked in the regular parking areas and they kept their parking lights turned on.

“The forest preserves belong to the people,” said Sauers. “Many a young fellow who hasn’t the money for expensive entertainment can drive out to the preserves, buy a hamburger, and hold hands with his sweetheart.”

And many a young fellow took up that offer. More than 300 cars pulled up nightly in Dan Ryan Woods. The “best” nights, Wednesday and Friday, saw even higher numbers.

The Chicago Park District was not as liberal-minded. More than 200 patrolmen combed the city’s parks each night to chase away romancers.

“Necking in the park is unethical,” said James Kerr, chief of the park police. “We won’t allow it at all. You see, it isn’t the young kids we have the trouble with. It’s the adults. There’s no fool like an old fool.”

Likewise, “roadside courting” was taboo along county highways. Chief Lester Laird of the highway police declared, “We won’t have it. The forest preserves take care of that problem.”

Sauers’ main concern was safety. They didn’t allow “moongazers” in the remote areas of preserves after dark.

“We do like to herd the handholders into a common area,” said Sauers. “There’s safety in numbers.”

Cap Sauers has been gone from the FPCC for over 50 years, and today there are many more specific ordinances for the preserves. Although “necking” is not addressed per se, ordinances on public indecency in the FPCC prohibit sexual conduct. And parking is unlawful “after sunset and before sunrise of any day.” But there are a few preserves that take reservations for overnight camping ….

Next: More stories about DRW

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 14: More stories from the 1930s – 1940s

By Carol Flynn

During the Great Depression, few people could afford expensive vacations and outings. The Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) became more popular and important than ever as a source of entertainment and recreation.

Starting in the summer of 1938, for several years the Chicago Tribune sponsored a “twilight music series” featuring choral concerts in several preserves, including Dan Ryan Woods (DRW). On Sunday evenings, choirs from around the city and suburbs, ranging from church groups to opera companies to children’s choirs, performed in the woods. Everything from spirituals to romantic light opera to popular Irving Berlin songs – “God Bless America” premiered in 1938 – was featured.

The concerts attracted thousands of attendees and were lauded by everyone from the conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the director of Hull House for bringing free concerts to the people and making great use of the preserves.

Hull House was the famous settlement house founded in 1899 by Jane Addams (1860-1935), the legendary social worker, activist, and reformer. As part of its mission, Hull House offered social, educational, and artistic programs for the working class people of the near west side.

In 1941, a poignant article appeared in the Chicago Tribune: “Paint snow as black because it is to them: Hull House children are realistic.”

The inner-city children in the art program at Hull House painted winter as they saw it: sooty piles of snow on the streets, dirty gray city park skating areas. From imagination, they added trees with green leaves.

The teachers realized these children had never experienced a fresh, clean snowfall, nor had they seen a tree in winter. The excursions coordinator decided a winter outing was in order.

A day of sledding in DRW was decided upon. Summer trips to DRW regularly took place, but there were challenges to overcome for a winter outing. In summer, the children just needed carfare and lunches. But now in winter, many of the children had no warm woolen clothes, no mittens, no rubber boots – and no sleds.

Still, the staff was determined to make this happen, so the children could see vast stretches of untarnished white snow interspersed with groves of bare trees, and could experience a sled ride down the big hill. DRW had the warming house, and that was a big plus “for hands that build snowmen without mittens and for little boys who slide down a hill without a sled.”

One hundred and fifty boys and girls signed up for the trip, including the entire art class. There were 55 sleds available among those who signed up. They scoured the neighborhood to borrow and buy second-hand sleds, and the children used their ingenuity to build their own out of whatever materials they could find – old barrels, tin cans.

Warm clothes, boots and mittens were borrowed. They managed to pull off this first winter excursion and it was pronounced a “glorious success.”

They hoped to make sledding a regular winter activity. The Hull House cabinet maker said he would fashion sleds out of used lumber. The art teachers considered ways to make mittens in the art classes. Hull House planned to start a “cooperative winter sportswear department” from which children could borrow appropriate clothes and boots for outings and return them afterwards. They already had a “cooperative swimming suit department” for summer. After a beach jaunt, the suits went into the wash tubs to be readied for use by the next group.

“All we need to do is find ways to get them warmly dressed, a way to get them there and get the sleds there, some way to get more sleds, and consistent weather which is not too harsh and not too mild,” said the excursions coordinator.

Given the dedication of those connected to Hull House, they likely found ways to arrange more winter trips to DRW in the two decades that followed, before most of the complex was demolished in the early 1960s to build the University of Illinois – Chicago Circle campus.

During World War II, rubber tire restrictions and gas rationing curtailed travel even further. Thousands of picnics, parties and rallies were held in Dan Ryan Woods (DRW).

On one typical Sunday, July 25, 1943, more than 30 groups had permits for picnics in DRW. These were just some of the diverse groups there that day: Charms and Cain, United Ukrainian Russian Organization, St. Basil’s Church; Fort Dearborn Council, Knights of Columbus, Silk Hat Club; G. Carducci Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows; Jewish People’s Choral Society; Edith Cavell Post of the Canadian Legion; City Installment Dealers’ Protective Association; Englewood Branch of Workmen’s Brotherhood; Central Screw Company; and the Manor Society Club.

In 1949, DRW annexed 40 more acres of land, between 83rd and 85th Streets, Western Avenue east to the train tracks. This was the last acquisition of land within the preserve itself. The area was cleared and landscaped in 1955 with forest and meadow areas and picnic sites. In 1969, the parcel of land to the north, between 83rd Street and the tracks, which had been purchased in the early 1920s for a possible public golf course, was developed with grass seeding, landscaping, parking, picnic tables and bathrooms.

This now made the old Sherman Farm land continuous preserve property from the railroad tracks just south of 81st Street, to the ravine south of 87th Street. It was there joined by the old Pike estate to the east along the railroad tracks. In 1993, FPCC purchased former railroad land to the east of the woods to become the Major Taylor Trail bicycle path and that will be covered more in a future post.

Next: Events reflected the times

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 15: Events reflected the times

By Carol Flynn

Picnics, celebrations, entertainment, and sports events were the mainstay of Dan Ryan Woods (DRW) activities. However, other events of a more serious nature were also held there, reflective of the decades in which they occurred.

After World War II, the period known as the “Cold War” started, when political tensions ran high between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear warfare hung over the globe, tempered by the knowledge that a strike by either side would lead to mutually assured destruction.

On September 25, 1951, DRW was used as the site to stage a mock response to an A-bomb attack. The scenario was that the city of Joliet was bombed and heavily damaged, and the Chicago Civil Defense Corps was mobilizing its forces to send aid. The exercise was to test the preparedness of the Chicago forces to respond to such a crisis.

The alert was sounded at 9:30 a.m., and within an hour, 200 vehicles and 600 workers had assembled in DRW. Included were fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, utility repair trucks, bulldozers, heavy cranes and other street clearing machinery, and the crews that staffed them. Red Cross nurses and aides were also part of the mix.

Premiering at the event was a mobile hospital trailer that had its own power unit and included operating facilities, and oxygen, blood plasma and other medical supplies. It was developed specifically for such a disaster.

Four amateur radio operators communicated between DRW, Joliet, and the radio control center at the Burnham Park administration offices. Mobile radios, walkie-talkies, and temporary telephones and telegraph lines were set up to coordinate efforts within the DRW assembly area, and link them to Burnham Park.

Although the vehicles did not make the actual trip to Joliet, overhead a helicopter hovered that would have monitored and reported on traffic conditions around DRW. A Civil Air Patrol plane patrolled Route 66 from Chicago to Joliet, the major highway between the cities then, and would have been ready to report on traffic and the locations of the units.

The test lasted about two hours and was reviewed by Mayor Martin H. Kennelly, other city officials, and civil defense authorities. It was pronounced a success. Fortunately, the plan never had to be implemented in reality.

The 1960s and 1970s saw activities for social causes.

In 1971, local Girl Scout troops staged an international food festival in DRW as a fund-raiser. The girls dressed in native costumes from various countries to illustrate and educate about the diverse groups and cultures that came to the U.S.

In 1977, 150 anti-Nazi protesters held peaceful demonstrations at DRW against the National Socialist Party and its plans to march in the northern suburb of Skokie. The demonstrators marched from DRW to the Nazi Party headquarters near 71st Street and Western Avenue, where police kept the two groups separated, and there were no incidents. The Nazi Party obeyed a court order to cancel the Skokie march.

During the 1970s, DRW was one of the starting and ending points for an annual anti-hunger march conducted by the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation. As many as 40,000 high school and college students gathered pledges, met at DRW, and marched up to 30 miles to raise funds for projects ranging from schools in developing countries to local food cooperatives. At least 45 high schools from the southwest Chicagoland area were represented. The march route wound through local neighborhoods to Midway Airport and back, with checkpoints at intervals. Residents along the route offered encouragement, refreshments and restroom facilities.

Wrote one columnist about the event in 1971: “You should have been there to see the happening, and then maybe you’d understand what this age is all about. In this column, I’ve hammered a lot about today’s young folks being softies. I’ve bemoaned the hippies who protested and rioted and scorned physical fitness.

“But now, at near 10 p.m. Sunday, in the increasing darkness in the Dan Ryan Woods, I felt more thrilled than I’ve ever before been thrilled in the newspaper game. I was with thousands of fine young Americans who had walked 30 miles each to raise funds for the hungry in Cook County, Illinois, Africa, you name it. Young Americans with a purpose.”

Next: Skis and toboggans

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 16: Skis and toboggans

By Carol Flynn

Earlier posts in this series have mostly emphasized summer activities, but winter sports were equally important in the history of Dan Ryan Woods (DRW).

The high, steep Blue Island Ridge was perfect for ski jumping, tobogganing, and sledding. The baseball diamonds and sports fields could be flooded for ice skating. The open meadows and hiking trails accommodated sleigh rides, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. And of course, building snow forts and snowmen, and having snowball fights, were all part of winter fun.

Winter parties and events in DRW were regularly held by school and church groups, Scouts, businesses and associations and private families. Of course, the weather was always a factor. On more than one occasion, what was billed as a sledding outing turned into a hike and weenie roast when there was no snow to be found. When the snow did come, there was nothing local students loved better than a “snow day” so they could head over to DRW with their sleds.

The Forest Preserve Ski Club started in 1925 under the auspices of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The Club conducted professional and amateur ski jump competitions in several of the preserves, and the Ridge in DRW was one of the sites where a ski slide was built. It was to the north of the warming shelter.

The competitions were held for over a decade. Then in the late 1930s, while the Great Depression was still affecting finances, the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPPC) decided that maintaining the ski slides, running the competitions, and funding the prizes were too expensive. An issue was always the weather because back then artificial snow did not work well on the slides. One article said, “Ammonia pipe snow is too lumpy for use on the slide, according to August H. Loula, chief of forest preserve police and secretary of the Forest Preserve ski club.”

FPCC got out of the ski jump business and the ski slides were converted to toboggan runs. Cross-country skiing was promoted as a continuing option.

DRW had toboggan slides from its earliest days. They were routinely updated and/or replaced. In 1937, it was reported that six toboggan slides and a small ski slide were newly constructed at DRW, likely by one of the New Deal government agencies. These toboggan slides were “banked, ‘S’ curve runs.”

By 1954, DRW was down to one functional slide, and a new slide and platform area were built. Also at that time, the entrance to the parking area at 87th Street and Western Avenue was changed to have the opening on Western Avenue. Congestion around the area on week-ends because of DRW had become an on-going problem.

Tobogganing remained a favorite recreation at DRW for the next four and a half decades, but there were always issues. Maintenance of the slides was a constant expense. And then there were the accidents.

The newspapers carried many reports of wintertime accidents in the FPPC. Broken bones, injured backs – and lawsuits – were not uncommon. At DRW, one 1960 Sunday afternoon alone saw seven accidents at the toboggan slides.

The emergency room at Little Company of Mary Hospital frequently treated the injured. In one case in 1958, a 12-year old boy fell off his toboggan and wound up with a stick impaled in his side. In another case, a young woman took a bad tumble off a toboggan during its run down the slide and was seriously injured. In a third example, an 18-year old boy was hit by two toboggans, suffering cuts and bruises, and prompting Superintendent Sauers to call for an investigation into the slides at DRW.

In 2000, the toboggan slides at DRW closed for much needed repair work. They never reopened. The cheapest bid the FPPC received for the work was over $700,000. By 2004, more than $4 million was needed to repair or replace the aging slides throughout the FPCC. Although there was much protest from the public, the decision was made to close all of the slides, and by 2008, the slides were removed from FPCC.

Alas, a favorite pastime in DRW became part of memories and history. Today, sledding and hiking are allowed on the Ridge, and a new exercise staircase was added to the hill in the spring of 2019 on the site of an old toboggan run. Cross-country skiing and snowshoe hiking remain popular in DRW.

Next: Dogs and Dan Ryan Woods

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 17: Dogs and Dan Ryan Woods

By Carol Flynn

The Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) have always had issues with people abandoning unwanted pets and animals in the preserves. It may seem a natural place to do so, but non-native species rarely survive, especially through a harsh Midwest winter. In some cases, such as goldfish and koi dumped in ponds and streams, the animals are an invasive species that can destroy native flora, fauna, and ecosystems.

This tidbit is from a 2014 FPCC newsletter: “Some of the strangest encounters happened in the early 1980s, when someone with an illegal exotic pet collection simply opened the animals’ cages and left the state to avoid prosecution. Over the following years, staff found porcupines, bobcats and even a kangaroo roaming around in preserves.”

This brings to mind an anecdotal story about educator Bessie Sutherland, for whom Sutherland Elementary School is named. Sutherland was principal at the school which would be renamed for Alice Barnard, another pioneering Ridge educator, from 1883 to 1923. Sutherland heard that a camel had gotten loose from a traveling show and was wandering in the local woods on the Ridge. In the true Progressive spirit of learning by doing, she gathered all the students for an impromptu field trip to the woods to find and observe the camel “in the wild.”

Exotic animals aside, dogs have been a particular problem for the FPCC and Dan Ryan Woods (DRW). Not only have they been abandoned in the woods, but escaped and lost pets gravitate to the woods where they find natural shelter and food. From there, they also go out into the neighborhoods to forage. If not caught, those who survive, the strongest and fiercest, may breed and establish feral packs.

There were several early stories about stray dogs in DRW. In 1934, a mother spitz and two newborn puppies were found living in the hollow base of a tree around 89th Street near Western Avenue. She was deemed “vicious” by DRW workmen, a natural reaction for a mother dog protecting puppies, but the concern was that children might approach her and be bitten. The Illinois Humane Society captured the dog and puppies.

In 1945, a “brown toy shepherd” dubbed “Dollie” by the press became a media darling when she “haunted Ryan woods” for several months but was finally captured by the Animal Welfare League. Dollie led the League agent to a den she had dug under bushes where they found her newborn puppies, their eyes still unopened. The Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the rescue of Dollie and her pups led a woman from California, the honorary president of the league, to donate $15,000 for an animal shelter in Chicago.

Packs of stray dogs in the city started to be mentioned in the local news in the 1950s. In 1954, three women in Beverly/Morgan Park were reportedly bitten by a rabid dog. By the 1970s, the situation with stray dogs around the city was considered a dangerous threat. The Department of Animal Care and Control caught 60 to 100 dogs per day. People left their houses carrying baseball bats for protection.

Stray dogs were common in DRW and the woods were periodically swept to try to keep the number under control. Well-intentioned but uninformed people in the neighborhood set up feeding stations and dog houses in the woods for these stray dogs, which not only attracted more dogs but also colonies of rats.

The situation festered for several decades before tragedy struck in January of 2003. Two women jogging in the far north section of DRW off 83rd Street were attacked by two dogs. One woman was killed, and the other was permanently disabled.

Before the attacks, joggers and bikers had reported aggressive dogs in DRW but FPCC only had four animal control officers to patrol the entire preserve system and unincorporated areas of the county. After the attacks, Chicago police scoured the neighborhood and killed two stray dogs that fit the description of the attackers. The DNA of only one of the dogs, a pit-bull mix, was linked to the attacks. That meant the second dog was still on the loose.

DRW was closed on and off for several months while elusive stray dogs were rounded up and their DNA tested. Several were caught, including a litter of well-fed puppies, whose mother apparently had been living off pheasants and other birds, as determined by the feathers found in the den. According to newspaper accounts, a shepherd-mix was found to be the second dog with DNA that matched the samples from the attack.

In 2012, the First District Appellate Court upheld a trial court’s judgment that the FPCC was not legally liable for the attacks because it did not knowingly permit the dogs to remain in the woods.

For the record, not all FPCC encounters with dogs are negative. Leashed dogs are allowed in approved areas of the preserves, and there are off-leash dog areas available for use through a membership program. Events with dogs have been held in the preserves. As just one example, in 2001, a 5K dog walk to raise funds to prevent blindness was held in a preserve. A blessing of the dogs, the walk, lunch, canine demonstrations and contests, and raffles were all part of the day.

FPCC is the natural home of wildlife and one original purpose of the preserves was to protect native species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Wildlife does not confine itself to the preserves, of course, and the humans of the Ridge share their urban environment with raccoons, opossums, fox, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, coyotes, and other wild animals. The management of these animals, including removal of nuisance animals, is controlled by the Illinois Wildlife Code.

Next up: Law and order in the preserves

The history of Dan Ryan Woods – Part 18: Crime, law and order in Dan Ryan Woods

By Carol Flynn

Reading about crime and violence can be unsettling, but for any history to be accurate, the good, the bad and the ugly must be included. This post deals with the uglier aspects of the history of Dan Ryan Woods.

The seclusion and isolation of the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPPC) made them an ideal place for clandestine and illegal activities, and Dan Ryan Woods (DRW) was no exception.

There were occasional reports of crimes and other undesirable happenings in the early years of the FPPC. Robberies in remote areas were reported; the victims were often couples parking late at night. Visitors were sometimes bothered by “tramps.” Murderers hid their victims in the preserves. Despondent people committed suicide in the loneliness of the woods. Bizarre accidents happened – a decaying tree suddenly split and fell on picnickers, killing several.

One early crime reported in DRW was a robbery and car theft in the early morning hours of the 4th of July in 1931. In 1946, a man who shot his ex-girlfriend's father fled to the preserve after the crime; there he wandered for several hours and disposed of the gun, which the police later found after searching the woods.

Crime in DRW started being mentioned more frequently in the newspapers beginning in the 1950s. Robberies and car thefts continued, and there were arrests for gambling.

In 1957, a murder was committed just outside of DRW and the killer escaped through the preserve to board a bus at 87th Street and Longwood Drive. The police issued a sketch of the suspect and conducted a door-to-door manhunt in the area. The murderer was found to be a man who lived and worked locally.

In 1959, north side gangs of white youths planned to “rumble” with guns in DRW but called it off due to rain. The members of one gang instead went to Riverview amusement park where they terrorized visitors with a loaded shotgun.

An earlier post in this series mentioned that rangers were among the first employees to be hired by the FPCC. According to a 1993 Chicago Tribune article, this ranger force was plagued by ineffectiveness due to unqualified staff hired through patronage; and due to understaffing, poor training, and poor pay. The article said the rangers acted like the preserves were “Jellystone Park,” when, by the late 1970s, the preserves had actually become “drugstores with cars lining up in the parking lots while their occupants bought PCP and heroin.”

Illegal drugs and drinking were issues in DRW for many years; it was a popular place for underage drinking. Other crimes included vandalism and theft of DRW property; as one example, people stole picnic tables. Fights, assaults, and shootings happened; many of these were racially motivated attacks instigated by local teen-agers. Suicides have occurred in DRW as recently as a few years ago.

Among the murder victims found in DRW through the years was a young woman strangled by a serial killer. An earlier post shared that murder victims have been dumped at these woods since at least the 1890s when the land was still the Sherman Farm.

An abandoned newborn baby girl was found in DRW by a woman walking her dog. The baby was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital where she was found in good health.

More heinous crimes included the attack and rape of a woman walking a path through the woods to the train station in the early morning to go downtown to work; DNA evidence was used for the first time in Cook County history to convict the rapist. In another case, a man was shot to death in a parking lot dispute in DRW, the only FPCC homicide that year.

According to the 1993 Tribune article, in 1992, the Cook County Board added several million dollars to the FPCC police budget for ongoing efforts to take a more aggressive and professional stance against crime. Increasing staff, better training, and new equipment and uniforms were part of the plan. Civil service exams became part of the hiring process and most of the patronage employees were replaced.

Although the department had a long way to go, some changes were quickly noticed. In the 1993 article, two men in their mid-20s, hanging out at another preserve, not DRW, lamented the changes: “We used to do whatever we wanted to do, man,” said one. He remembered when they had kegger parties right in the pavilion. “Those days are gone,” he said.

“It’s like being in a communist country. You can’t even go in the woods and have a beer without getting hassled,” said the second.

Today, the FPCC website states its police officers are state certified and receive additional training in conservation and ecology. The department operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They patrol in marked police vehicles, on foot, and by bicycle, ATV and boat. FPCC mentions on its website a program which uses volunteers as additional eyes and ears to report any suspicious or unusual activity to the forest preserve police.

Periodically, the idea of combining the forest preserve police with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has been proposed but not acted upon. At the December 2019 meeting of the forest preserve board, it was reported that the employees receiving the highest customer satisfaction ratings for last year included the law enforcement staff. It was approved at that meeting to begin using body cameras and taser weapons for the forest preserve police.

Next up: Odds and ends – some interesting DRW stories