Lake and McHenry Counties Through Roads 1917

Looking at the 1917 Illinois State Highway Map, there was just one through route shown in Lake County going east west and into McHenry County where it was joined by another road coming northwest from Chicago.

The east-west road in both counties had no name at the time, but started at Lake Michigan in Waukegan and went through Warrenton, Hainesville, Volo, McHenry, Woodstock and Marengo (where it joined the other road) and on to Belvidere and Rockford.

Today, this road is Il-120 to Woodstock. Then, I'm guessing it to be Il-47 to Il-176 to Il-23. Today, Il-120 from Waukegan west to Grayslake is also called Belvidere Road because of where this original road went although I'm surprised it is not Rockford Road because that town was definitely bigger. I had always wondered how it got the name Belvidere. There was even a Belvidere Mall in Waukegan.

There was also a north-south road running along the Lake Michigan shore from Highland Park in the south to Winthrop Harbor on the Wisconsin border. It was called the Blazing Trail and continued into Chicago where it ended.

In Marengo, it joined a road called the Grant Highway (shown on the map as a rectangle with yellow/black/yellow stripes). The Grant Highway came out of Chicago, Lombard, Addison, Bloomington, Addison, Elgin and Pingree Grove. I found out that the Grant Highway went from Chicago all the way out to Portland, Oregon.

Today, this route is US-20. And, US-20 also has the name U.S. Grant Memorial Highway clear through to Galena in the western part of the state.

So, That's How They Got Their Names. --RoadDog