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Friday, September 28, 2012

Apple Orchards

In Lake County, apple orchards were an integral part of the landscape since the arrival of the first settlers in the 1830s. The primary profession was agriculture, and each farmstead had a dwelling house, barns, cultivated fields, and apple orchard.

Image from Lake County plat map published by H.R. Page & Co., Chicago, 1885.

Orchards varied in size and were primarily for the family’s use. A good orchard would have a mixture of dessert apples for eating out of hand, culinary apples for baking, and cider apples. A typical 19th century farm orchard is shown above (foreground) on the Oren Luce Farm in Vernon Township, Lake County, Illinois. 

The first nurseryman in Lake County was Thomas Payne of Fremont Township. Payne started his business in 1841, and by the 1850s had 100,000 trees in his inventory, which included landscape trees, shrubs and fruit trees. He sold apple trees for $17 per 100.

Receipt for apples, April 1851. Minto Collection, Dunn Museum, 93.45.253

Receipt (above) for apple trees purchased by David Minto of Loon Lake from Otis Marble, Sr., for a total of $6.00 on April 1851. The Minto farm was on the east side of Loon Lake along Deep Lake Road, west of Millburn. 

Over the years, the type of apple trees planted changed dramatically as new varieties were developed. A list of available apple trees offered in 1849 to Lake County residents included varieties such as: Sops of Wine, Surprise, Sweet and Sour, Toole’s Indian Rarepipe, Twenty Ounce, Benoni, William’s Favorite, Coxe’s Red Pippin, Orange Sweeting, and White Doctor.

Excerpt of letter from George Smith to his sister Susannah, September 30, 1862. 
Minto Collection, Dunn Museum, 93.45.446

On September 30, 1862, George Smith wrote home to his sister Susannah in Millburn: "I want some more of those big apples up from the old spider. Such apples as those cost .05 apiece here and sour at that, such ones as I have." George was in training with the 96th Illinois Regiment at Camp Fuller, Rockford, Illinois. 

Inkwell, circa 1840. Dunn Museum, 79.17.155

An apple-shaped inkwell (above), included a honeybee. This inkwell was used by the Ryerson Family of Riverwoods at their former summer home in today's Ryerson Conservation Area. 

During the late 1800s, the purchase of fruit trees through mail order catalogues became very popular. Each winter the farmer would patiently wait for his fruit tree catalog to arrive to check the varieties available and compare prices. It was also common for a salesman to stop by local farms to show off the wide array of fruit trees that could be purchased through mail order.

At the turn of the 20th century, most family apple orchards in Lake County included varieties such as: Baldwin, Northern Spy, Snow Apple, Winesap, McIntosh, Jonathan, Rhode Island Greening, Golden Russet, Northwest Greening, and Maiden’s Blush.

Apple trees at Brae Burn Farm, Lake Forest, 1915. Gleiser Collection, Dunn Museum 93.31.7. 

Little Dorothy Gleiser, pictured in the photo above, is sitting in an apple tree at the Brae Burn Farm in Lake Forest. The farm was Robert Leatherbee's gentleman's farm, and Dorothy's father, Lorenz Gleiser, was the farm manager.

Postcard of Bell's Orchard "Home of the Big Apple" by the Great American Color Company, circa 1960. Dunn Museum, 2001.9.1

The earliest large scale pick-your-own apple orchard was Bell's Apple Orchard in Lake Zurich near Routes 12 & 22. The orchard was started by John Bell and William Webbe in the 1930s. By the 1980s land values had risen and the orchard was sold. The site became a subdivision known as The Orchards. 

Following World War II, the popularity of pick-your-own apple orchards surged. Locals, as well as families from Chicago, flocked to the countryside to enjoy a day out-of-doors in the beautiful fall weather. Apple varieties that continued to be popular included Jonathan, McIntosh, and Red Delicious.

Popular orchards included: Jonathan Orchards in Wadsworth, Zale's in Russell, Orchard Valley, Ziegler's Orchard in Grayslake, Heinz Orchard in Green Oaks, Quig's Orchard in Mundelein, and Wauconda Orchards.

Commemorative postcard, circa 1980. Dunn Museum 2008.2.2

Quig's began in 1947 with Henry Quig selling apples out of the back of his pickup truck. The family purchased land for the orchard and soon the business grew to include a restaurant, gift shop, and gold fish pond. Quig's had their last harvest and closed in 2005. 

In 1967, this photo ran with an article in the News-Sun about Wauconda Orchards: "The Wentzel's daughter, Laurie, shows off some of the orchards' apples available in October." News Sun Collection, Dunn Museum.

Wauconda Orchard got its start in 1951 when Richard and Marge Breeden purchased 75 acres along Fairfield Road. The orchard began modestly with 500 trees and grew to nearly 10,000 trees, becoming the largest apple orchard in Northern Illinois. 

Photo of gift shop buildings at Wauconda Orchards taken during the last harvest in 2001. www.wheelmen.com

At its height, Wauconda Orchards attracted over 100,000 people per year. In 2001, the Breedens chose to retire and sold the orchard. The proposed housing development had great opposition from local residents, but eventually was built. 

Apple orchards are very much a symbol of a rural, agrarian life. With the rise in land values and population in Lake County—especially from the 1980s on—it is not surprising that farms and orchards began to disappear. As of this writing, Ziegler's and Heinz apple orchards are still in business to offer pickers a chance at this wonderful seasonal tradition.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

420 Million Year Old Fossil Rock

The Bess Bower Dunn Museum's oldest artifact (by a long shot) is a 420 million year old fossil rock.

The rock was discovered in May 1957 during the excavation of a new home site on Old Elm Road in Lindenhurst, Illinois. The unearthed rock was so large it had to be split to be removed from the ground.

Photographed with the rock split in two are Raymond Caldwell, Robert Vogel and Mrs. Caldwell. Raymond Caldwell points to a fossil in the rock excavated on the site of his family's new home. Photo taken in September 1957. (Dunn Museum photo/Vogel Vol. 2)

The discovery set off a media whirlwind, opening people's eyes to a time when this entire region was part of an ancient sea.

Robert Vogel, who founded the Lake County Museum of History in Wadsworth in 1957, (a forerunner of the Bess Bower Dunn Museum), acquired the rock for the museum’s collection. Vogel ambitiously collected artifacts to represent different eras in Lake County’s past, and the fossil rock was quite a coup, since it attracted national and international attention.

Detail of fossil rock on exhibit at the Lake County Discovery Museum (now the Bess Bower Dunn Museum), showing cephalopod fossils. Photo by D. Dretske.

The fossils embedded in the rock include small rounded shells of lampshell brachiopods, and the long pointed shells of kronoceras and orthoceras, two types of cephalopods (“head footed”). Cephalopods are the ancestors of today’s squid.

Shell and cephalopod fossils on fossil rock. Photo by D. Dretske.

American interest in fossils and dinosaur bones began in the early 1800s. As a young nation, the United States struggled with its national identity. With no ancient history or man-made monuments to brag about, it took exploration of the continent to reveal a wealth of “larger than life” natural wonders: the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, giant Sequoia and Redwood trees, and dinosaur fossils. These discoveries inspired giant-sized legends such as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. The discovery of the 420-million year old sea creature fossils, put Lake County on the “larger than life” map.

Robert Vogel (1925-2005) collecting the fossil rock for the museum, September 1957. (Dunn Museum Photo)

Thanks to Bob Vogel, the fossil rock became part of the museum's permanent collection and has fascinated museum visitors for many years. It has been on permanent exhibit in the museum's galleries since 1999. 

Remember, September is Illinois Archaeology Awareness Month! https://www.isas.illinois.edu/