Gurnee History: 1873: Gurnee Stop Multi-cache

This cache has been archived.

psychovw: Not a good hiding spot, but still a cool historical spot.

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Hidden : 1/2/2015
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

This is part of a historical cache series across Lake County. Check out the bookmark on this page for other historical caches in Lake County.

Gurnee was settled in 1835 and became a farming community. The community was originally called Wentworth, and the name changed to Gurnee in 1873.

The Story

In 1836, the Milwaukee Railroad plan was laid out through the village.

In 1873, The Milwaukee & St. Paul (“The Milwaukee Road”) completed a line from Chicago to Milwaukee. A year later, it added “Chicago” to its name becoming the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railway (CM&StP).

Locally in 1873, a train stop was built and farmers could ship their Dairy cattle and products into the city by rail. The road the stop was on was aptly named Depot Road. Wentworth was so glad to become a railroad stop, that they named the train stop after the director of the railroad, Walter S. Gurnee. A year later, the town adopted the name of Gurnee since people kept referencing the stop name to the town name. The station master was Willis Appleyard. A cattle pen was constructed on Depot Road for the cattle farmers using the train. Telegraphs were sent and received at the depot.


In the 1920's, a viaduct was constructed at Old Grand Ave and the railroad to make crossing safer by automobile (as you can see it today). In 1928, Gurnee was established as a village.

In 1979, there was a train derailment. At least 30 freight cars jumped off the track near the present Viking Park.

The train depot survived into 1980, and in 1985 became bankrupt. The Soo Line Corporation purchased the property from CM&StP and assigned it to a newly created subsidiary, The Milwaukee Road Inc.

In 1986 The Milwaukee Road Inc. merged into the Soo Line Railroad along with others.

In 1990, Canadian Pacific gained full control of the Soo Line Corporation. Gurnee Depot had 1 remaining building in 1993. By 1997, that one building was gone and only the park you see here remains. Gurnee Village board debated putting a new Train Station at the end of Depot/41/Kilborne but Amtrak was concerned about funding and did not have Gurnee on their list of new commuter rail lines.

In the 2000’s Soo Line was consolidated into Canadian Pacific and only a few locomotives remain in their original scheme.

Today, Gurnee Depot is long gone but Depot road remains the same. The railway is now Canadian – Pacific.

Satellite Images



The Cache

Stage 1: Virtual at the location of the original Gurnee stop. These power lines were present when the station was here. On the bottom power line row, count the number of insulators (including where an insulator should be). Add that to .261 for North and subtract it from .701 for West.
Stage 2: Short walk from S1 and is a camo pill bottle.


References

Mullery, Virginia. Lake County, Illinois. This Land of Lakes and Rivers. Northridge, Calif.: Windsor Publications, 1989. Print.
Dretske, Diana. Lake County Illinois: An Illustrated History. China: Sun Fung Offset Binding Co. Ltd. 2007. Print.
Warren Township Historical Society. Gurnee and Warren Township. Charleston , SC: Arcadia, 2005. Print.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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