Dan Goodwin "Spiderman" scaled the outside of the John Hancock Building and the Sears Tower in 1981.

Dan Goodwin's Interest in climbing buildings.
On November 21, 1980, Dan Goodwin witnessed the MGM Grand fire in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, including the inability of the Clark County Fire Department and the supporting fire departments to rescue scores of hotel guests trapped inside. Believing he knew how to rescue the trapped people, Goodwin presented a rescue plan to the on-location fire boss. Goodwin's plan included his climbing up the building and connecting cables to the floors to enable rescue baskets to be ferried to and from helicopters. The fire boss responded by threatening Goodwin with arrest and then ordered him escorted from the scene. The following day, Goodwin approached the fire chief of a Fire Department sub-station and presented his rescue plan. The fire chief told Goodwin he needed to climb a building to learn of the dangers of high-rise firefighting and rescue. The following Memorial Day, Goodwin scaled the outside of the Sears Tower in Chicago (renamed as "Willis Tower" in 2009), which at the time was the tallest building in the world.

Sears Tower, Chicago, Illinois.
On Memorial Day, May 25, 1981, wearing a Spiderman suit and using suction cups, camming devices, and skyhooks, Goodwin successfully scaled the then-tallest building in the world, the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago.

For seven hours Goodwin fought the high altitude winds, slippery glass, and repeated attempts by the Chicago Fire Department to stop him. A few feet below the top Goodwin taped an American flag to the building to honor his father who fought in the Korean War. Chicago’s press dubbed him "SpiderDan." Goodwin stated the reason he scaled the building was to call attention to inadequacies in high-rise firefighting and rescue.

John Hancock Center, Chicago, Illinois.
On Veterans Day, November 11, 1981, wearing a wetsuit disguised as a Spiderman suit and using a climbing device he designed for the building, Goodwin scaled the 100-story John Hancock Center in Chicago. 

The photo is Dan Goodwin looking toward the top of the John Hancock Center in Chicago on November 11, 1981, as he nears his final destination. A crowd, including police and firefighters, waits to greet and arrest him after his 100-story ascent.

To elude firemen who were descending toward him in a window-washing machine, Goodwin swung across the building with a rope. The fire department, on the inside of the building, used fire axes to shatter window glass near Goodwin and then through the openings in the glass attempted to dislodge Goodwin from the building with grappling hooks attached to long poles.

On a chilly Veterans Day of Nov. 11, 1981, Dan Goodwin was clinging by a homemade hook to an I-beam outside the 37th floor of the Hancock Center when then-Fire Commissioner William Blair gave the controversial order for firefighters on a higher floor to let loose a fire hose on him.

"They tried to kill me," says Goodwin, who leaned to one side and then the other to keep the force of the cold water from blasting him off the side of the building. "I felt at any moment I could die, and that brought out the warrior in me."

Equally determined not to let Goodwin, who had climbed the world's tallest building (now known as the Willis Tower) on Memorial Day, make it to the top of another Chicago building, the fire department tried to block his path with long poles and even smashed windows in an attempt to grab him.

"It was very intimidating to see the ax come through the window," says Goodwin, who will turn 59 on Friday and expects to be a grandfather next year.

Realizing the danger and the liability for the city, then-Police Superintendent Richard J. Brzeczek took command of the scene, called off the firefighters, and threatened to tow the firetrucks. He read a court order prohibiting Goodwin from finishing the climb.

With a mob gathered on the street below cheering, "Let him go! Let him go!" and TV stations recording the spectacle, then-Mayor Jane Byrne intervened, she took an elevator to the 38th floor and leaned out a broken window to see Goodwin perched below her "like a little bird."

"I never heard of her, so when this woman sticks her head out the window, she had to introduce herself," Goodwin recalls. Byrne clearly wasn't happy with him, "but she was compassionate," Goodwin says. "The rest of the climb went really well. I was just cold."

Goodwin said he made the climb to call attention to the inability to successfully fight fires in high-rise buildings.

VIDEO

John Hancock Center Climb.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Beginning of Wolf Point in Chicago, including the history of the Wolf Point Tavern.

The origin of the name Wolf Point is unknown. In her 1856 memoir "Wau-Bun, the Early Day in the Northwest," Juliette Kinzie states that 'the place was then called Wolf Point, from its having been the residence of an Indian named "Moa-way," or "the Wolf."'

Other alternative explanations are that it was so named after the landlord of the grocery that would later be called the Wolf Point Tavern. killed a ferocious wolf and hung a painted sign of a wolf outside his tavern to commemorate the event, or that it was named by a soldier at Fort Dearborn because it was a place where wolves would gather at night.

The term Wolf Point originally referred to the Chicago River's west bank at the fork junction of its branches. Still, it gradually came to refer to the whole region around the forks and, in modern usage, is often more specifically used to mean the plot of land on the north side of the forks. The confluence of the river's three branches near Wolf Point inspired Chicago's Municipal Device. This Y-shaped city identification symbol can be seen on many Chicago buildings and city-owned vehicles.

The first non-indigenous settler at Wolf Point may have been a trader named Guarie. Writing in 1880, Gurdon Hubbard, who first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818, stated that he had been told of Guarie by Antoine De Champs and Antoine Beson. They had been traversing the Chicago Portage annually since about 1778. Hubbard wrote that De Champs had shown him evidence of a trading house and the remains of a cornfield supposed to have belonged to Guarie. The cornfield was located on the west bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River, a short distance from the forks at what is now Fulton Street; early settlers named the North Branch of the Chicago River the Guarie River or Gary's River.

James Kinzie (Virginia-raised second son of John Kinzie and Margaret McKinzie Kinzie, his first wife), son of early settler John Kinzie, built a tavern on the west bank of the river at Wolf Point in 1828. By 1829 this tavern was operated for Kinzie by Archibald Caldwell, who was granted a liquor license on December 8 of that year. Caldwell left Chicago early in 1830, and Elijah Wentworth became the landlord of the tavern. He was, in turn, succeeded by Charles Taylor (1831–1833) and William Walters (1833–1836). The tavern became known as the 'Wolf Point Tavern' or 'Wolf Tavern,' and a painted sign of a wolf was hung outside the tavern by approximately 1833.

Wolf Point Tavern

In about 1829, Samuel Miller and his brother John opened a store on the north bank of the river at the forks. In 1830, they enlarged their store and began to operate it as a tavern in competition with the Wolf Point Tavern. On June 2, 1829, Samuel Miller and Archibald Clybourn were authorized to operate the first ferry across the Chicago River. Clybourn was the ferryman, crossing the river's North Branch between Miller's tavern and the Wolf Point Tavern. In 1831 John Miller built a log house near his brother's tavern that he used as a tannery, Chicago's first recorded factory. Samuel Miller sold the tavern and moved away following the death of his wife in 1832.

Mark Beaubien opened the Eagle Exchange Tavern in a log cabin on the south bank in 1829. In 1831 Beaubien added a frame addition and opened the Sauganash Hotel, Chicago's first hotel. Immediately adjacent to the hotel's Tavern was Chicago's first drug store and first pharmacist, Philo Carpenter. Beaubien left the Sauganash Hotel in 1834, but the hotel continued in operation until it was destroyed by a fire in 1851. In 1837, the hotel hosted the first Chicago theatre company in a converted dining room. The site of the Sauganash Hotel was redeveloped as the Wigwam building in 1860; the site today is at 191 North Wacker and is designated as a Chicago Landmark.

The Sauganash Hotel. The log building on the left was Chicago's first drugstore.

James Kinzie built the Green Tree Tavern at the northeastern corner of Canal and Lake Streets in 1833. The tavern underwent a succession of owners and name changes before moving in 1880 to 33-35- 37 Milwaukee Avenue. In 1902 plans were made to preserve the building and move it to Garfield Park. However, the hotel collapsed before work could start on this project.

Where the Green Tree Tavern moved to.

Moved in 1880 to 33, 35, and 37 Milwaukee Avenue.

Rev. Jesse Walker started the first church on June 14, 1831, with ten members in a log cabin. In 1838, the congregation floated their log cabin across the Chicago River and rolled it on logs to the corner of Washington and Clark Streets, where it is the First United Methodist Church of Chicago today.

Archibald Clybourn's ferry across the North Branch of the Chicago River was replaced by a bridge in the winter of 1831 and 1832, and a bridge across the South Branch of the river located between Lake and Randolph Streets was added in the winter of 1832 and 1833. Early settlers J. D. Caton, John Bates, Charles Cleaver, and John Noble wrote in a letter in the fall of 1883 that both of these bridges were constructed of logs; they were about 10 feet wide and cleared the river by about 6 feet.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The 1968 Illinois Earthquake, a "New Madrid Fault event," was the largest recorded earthquake in the state of Illinois.

Striking at 11:02 AM on November 9, 1968, it measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. Although there were no fatalities, the event caused considerable structural damage to buildings, including the toppling of chimneys and shaking in Chicago, the region's largest city. The earthquake was among the most widely felt in U.S. history, affecting 23 states over 580,000 square miles.

Isoseismal map for the 1968 Illinois event.
I–III are Not felt; too Weak, IV is Light, V is Moderate, VI is Strong, and VII is Powerful.

In studying its cause, scientists discovered the Cottage Grove Fault in the Southern Illinois Basin. Within the region, millions felt the rupture. Reactions to the earthquake varied: some people near the epicenter did not react to the shaking, while others panicked. A future earthquake in the region is highly likely; in 2005, seismologists and geologists estimated a 90% chance of a magnitude 6–7 tremor before 2055, likely originating in the Wabash Valley seismic zone on the Illinois–Indiana border or the New Madrid fault zone. The first recorded Illinois earthquake was from 1795, when a small earthquake shook the frontier settlement of Kaskaskia.

Data from large earthquakes—in May and July 1909 and November 1968—suggest that earthquakes in the area are of moderate magnitude but can be felt over a large geographical area, mainly because of the lack of fault lines. The May 1909 Aurora earthquake affected people in an area of 500,000 square miles; the 1968 Illinois earthquake was felt by those living in about 580,000 square miles. Contradicting that the region's earthquakes are felt over a wide area, a 1965 shock was only noticed near Tamms, even though it had the same intensity level (VII) as those of 1909 and 1968. Before 1968, earthquakes had been recorded in 1838, 1857, 1876, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1887, 1891, 1903, 1905, 1912, 1917, 1922, 1934, 1939, 1947, 1953, 1955, and 1958. Since 1968, other earthquakes have occurred in the same region in 1972, 1974, 1984, and 2008. 

The quake struck on Saturday, November 9, 1968, at 11:02 AM. The quake's epicenter was slightly northwest of Broughton in Hamilton County and close to the Illinois–Indiana border, about 120 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. Surrounding the epicenter were several small towns built on flat glacial lake plains and low hills. Scientists described the rupture as "strong". During the quake, the magnitudes of the surface and body waves were measured at 5.2 and 5.54, respectively. The magnitude of the quake reached 5.4 on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred at a depth of 16 miles. A fault plane solution for the earthquake confirmed two nodal planes (one is always a fault plane, the other an auxiliary plane) striking north-south and dipping approximately 45 degrees to the east and to the west. This faulting suggests dip-slip reverse motion and a horizontal east-west axis of confining stress. At the time of the earthquake, no faults were known in the immediate epicentral region. Still, the motion corresponded to movement along the Wabash Valley Fault System roughly 10 miles east of the area.

The rupture also partly occurred on the New Madrid Fault, which was responsible for the great New Madrid earthquakes in 1812. The New Madrid tremors were the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States. Various theories were put forward for the cause of the rupture. Donald Roll, director of seismology at Loyola University Chicago, proposed that the quake was caused by massive amounts of silt deposited by rivers, generating a "seesaw" effect on the plates beneath. "The weight of the silt depressed one end of the block and tipped up the other," he said. However, scientists eventually realized the cause was a then-unknown fault, the Cottage Grove Fault, a small tear in the Earth's rock in the Southern Illinois Basin near Harrisburg, Illinois.

The fault, aligned east-west, is connected to the north-south trending Wabash Valley Fault System at its eastern end. Seismographic mapping completed by geologists revealed monoclines, anticlines, and synclines, all suggesting deformation during the Paleozoic era when strike-slip faulting took place nearby. The fault runs along an ancient Precambrianterrane boundary. It was active mainly in the Late Pennsylvanian and Early Permian epochs around 300 million years ago.

In 2005, scientists determined a 90% probability of a magnitude 6–7 earthquake in the New Madrid area during the next 50 years. This could cause potentially high damage in the Chicago metropolitan area, which has a population of nearly ten million people. Pressure on the fault where the 1811–1812 Madrid earthquakes occurred was believed to be increasing, but a later study by Eric Calais of Purdue University and other experts concluded the land adjacent to the New Madrid fault was moving less than 0.0079 inches a year, increasing the span between expected earthquakes on the fault to 500–1,000 years. Scientists anticipating a future earthquake suggest the Wabash Valley Fault as a possible source, calling it "dangerous." 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Acorn Ridge (Amusement) Park, Lemont, Illinois. (late-1940s-1989)

Acorn Ridge Park (late-1940s-1989) was located at 119th Street and Route 171 in Lemont, adjacent to the Cog Hill Golf Course and near I-55 and I-294.

Acorn Ridge was only open during the summer weekends and the rides operated only on weekends. A number of the rides were trailer mounted, as traveling carnivals use. They had "Pump cars" or hand-cranked cars, a trailer-mounted kiddie coaster, Bumper (7) cars, Hayrides (the park's favorite ride), (2) Arrow 3/4 scale 1906 replica 3-seat antique cars with 10 horsepower Kohler gasoline engine.

LOCATION MAP

I was contacted by R.J., searching for information and photos of this Amusement Park.

R.J. writes, "The most intriguing thing that I recall was that in the late fall, the rides would be tarped and moved to the side, and the grove would fill with actual gypsy wagons, which wintered there. 

I believe the park area was still there into the 80s, although by then, the rides were gone, replaced with many picnic tables.

I would occasionally drive by there to see what had happened to the park and to see if the gypsy wagons ever returned. They didn't, and the park fell into disuse. It was vacant probably until the early 90s and was eventually sold, and it may have been developed into a subdivision."

UPDATED August 16, 2022:

I joined and posted this article in the "Long Time Lemonters," Facebook group. Kelly Orbell Rauch, the granddaughter of Opal Orbell, one of the owners of Acorn Ridge Park, started out with a comment that said, "Who the hell gave these people that information[?]" said Rauch, referring to the personal comment in the article by R.J. 

 

Kelly Orbell Rauch, if you're interested in adding to the article, contact me at LivingHistoryOfIllinois@yahoo.com. 

In the last image in this post, we ask people to HELP expand this amusement park's history with pictures and stories. I'm also more than happy to discuss any issues people have with the data or pictures, but please, don't be aggressive out of the gate because there's nowhere to go from there. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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Below are photographs of Acorn Ridge Park, 1989.

Allen Herschell "Little Beauty" Merry-Go-Round; 2-abreast with (20) wood body, metal leg (1/2 & 1/2) horses and (3) kiddie ponies.

Sellner Tilt-A-Whirl

Eli № 10 Ferris Wheel

Albert G. Lane Manual Training High School, Chicago, Illinois. (1908)

Located on Division and Sedgwick, the Albert Grannis Lane Manual Training High School opened in September 1908. The school was formally dedicated on Washington's birthday, February 1909 and is named for Albert Grannis Lane, Chicago Superintendent of Schools. As industrial education's popularity continued to grow through the years and Lane added many new courses to its curriculum, Principal Bogan recommended that the school's name be changed to reflect all of the courses offered. In 1909 the school became known as the Albert Grannis Lane Technical High School.

Exterior view of the Albert G. Lane School with a group of children standing on the sidewalk at one corner of the building. The school was located at the intersection of West Division and North Sedgwick Streets in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. (1908)

By 1915 the school was in full swing. The building was in almost constant use. Carpentry, cabinet making, and wood turning were offered to first year students. Sophomores were given extensive training in the fields of foundry, forge, welding, core making, and molding. Juniors worked in the most popular shop, the machine shop. It was equipped with 80 machines and 60 lathes cast and built at Lane. Seniors were given the most advanced shop, the electric shop. There they built motors, generators, transformers, and other instruments. Other classes, such as art, classical architecture, drafting, and English were offered to develop students' communication skills. The print shop was the best equipped high school print shop in America. It was equipped with the newest and most advanced equipment of the time. Its jobs included the 4 page Lane Daily, the 56 page monthly Tech Prep, and the annual 200 page yearbook plus other out of school jobs. At this time, Jack T. Nelson, a student, felt it was time for Lane to have a school song. He wrote the words and music of "Go Lane Go," making Lane one of only a handful of schools with an original school song.

In 1929 a comprehensive music program was established at Lane. Chicago Symphony Orchestra director Frederick Stock and Superintendent William Bogan worked together in making up the new curriculum. By 1930 Lane had grown to a population of 7,000 students. To relieve the overcrowded conditions at the school, it was decided to build a new Lane Tech. Board of Education architect John C. Christensen began preparing plans for the world's foremost high school complex. On June 24, 1930 groundbreaking ceremonies took place at Western and Addison. (today's Lane Technical High School) The new building was a beautiful combination of function and art. Like the old Lane, it was designed to allow the teachers and pupils to work in a comfortable environment. On dedication day, September 17, 1934, 9000 boys marched from Cubs Park to the new school. Lane's new population required many new provisions. Classes had to be staged in three shifts, and commencement exercises were held at the International Amphitheater.

World War II provided Laneites with many opportunities to show the ideals of Albert G. Lane and his school. Many war drives were carried out by Lane students. These drives provided the war effort with four Red Cross ambulances, a B-17 Flying Fortress, and over 3 million dollars in war bonds. Lane's 50th anniversary in 1958 brought a very important change to the school. America, fearing the Soviet space supremacy, became preoccupied with establishing a sound space program. To aid in the education of scientists and engineers, Lane assumed a closed admission policy. The school dropped its remedial courses and took only the students that would make the greatest contributions to American science.

The year 1971 brought the most noticeable change in Lane's history. The Board of Education approved Superintendent James Redmond's recommendation to admit girls to Lane Tech. He cited a drop in enrollment and the lack of a technical school that admits girls as reasons for the change. The school was in a turmoil after this decision. Fifteen hundred Lane boys protested at the Board of Education. The general fear was that the school's quality would drop and within a few years Lane would be just another high school. Actually, the school's overall academic quality improved with the addition of girls.

ALBERT GRANNIS LANE
Born in a small, modest home in 1841 on what is now the corner of State and Van Buren Streets, Albert Grannis Lane made a permanent impression on Chicago and its people. Imbued with a strong work ethic, Mr. Lane took his first job at the age of seven.

Through his initiative and hard work, Albert G. Lane earned an appointment as the principal of the Franklin School just after his graduation from high school. Thus, at the age of seventeen, he became the youngest principal in the history of the Chicago Public Schools system. In 1869, Mr. Lane became Superintendent of the Cook County schools where he made many innovations to improve the quality of the public schools. During his long career, Mr. Lane also served as Superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools and President of the National Education Association.

Mr. Lane's most cherished dream was the creation of a large high school dedicated to providing students with hands-on experiences in technical education while developing and enhancing their academic skills. Lane Technical High School is the realization of that dream.

Today they go by; Lane Tech College Prep High School.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.