Tales of Old Fox Lake, Illinois

At the meeting of the Fox Lake/Grant Township Area Historical Society last Saturday, September 15th, long-time resident Bud Scott gave a bit of his family's history in town.

His great grandfather started coming out to Fox Lake in the late 1800s and he helped cut ice for use in the ice boxes of Chicago, these, of course, being the days before refrigerators.

His great grandfather opened Scott's Landing behind the present-day McDonald's on US Highway 12. He would take visitors from the train station to the various resorts located in the Chain of Lakes area. This would be done by boat as there really weren't any decent roads at the time. He built a residence which is still standing, but so extensively remodeled you can't tell that it is old.

At that time, the current lagoon was nothing more than a slough. Today. it has been deepened and the Fox Waterway Management, Gordy's Marina, and McDonald's use it for boats. How about that, you can actually boat to get your Big Macs and fries. And then there's my favorite, that mouth watering McRib sandwich and the occasional Johnsonville brat.

His great grandfather was also involved with the formation of the Village of Fox Lake in 1907. We are celebrating the centennial all year. Great grand dad also ran for mayor and got one whole vote, "but wasn't sure if it was his or somebody else's."

His family also ran the Fox Lake Golf Course in the 1940s. They had six slot machines and the proceeds fully paid for the electricity, heat, bartender's salary, and taxes for the year. And you think you're going to win when you gamble?

During WWII Bud Scott remembers convoys of trucks full of soldiers from Fort Sheridan stopping in on their way out to the Chain of Lakes State Park for training. He would give them a hard time.

A discussion followed. The president of the society said he used to work for Drake Ice Company and definitely remembers going up to the top of steep hills with much effort, only to find when they got there that the person had forgotten to take their ice sign down. Back then, people put up signs in their windows indicationg how much ice they wanted. He said that he would not be too pleased to get all the way up to the top of those hills only to find that he didn't have to do it.

There was some discussion about an old recalcitrant who ran Hennesey's Resort on Nippersink Avenue. The toilet flushes went directly into the lake.

The first several years I worked at Magee Middle School in Round Lake, there was an older woman teaching math by the name of Eleanor Smith. She was not the person a student wanted to cross and, I don't mind saying that I was a bit scared of her as well. I found out that her nickname in Fox Lake was Snuffy, probably after the cartoon strip Barney Googel and Snuffy Smith.

When she retired, all the teachers signed a big paddle, including myself, and that is part of the museum's collection.

The museum is open only on Sundays afternoons by a volunteer docent. Attendance in 2006 was 558. This year it is 829 and we still have over three months to go.

Always Neat to Find Out the Past. --RoadDog