Saturday, July 6, 2019

The History of the Tower Cabana Club at 3209 West Peterson Avenue in Chicago. (1955-1966)

Attorney Oscar A. Brotman (1916-1994) movie theater chain owner (the Lincoln Village Theater was owned by Brotman-Sherman Theaters, Inc.), former ping-pong and swimming champion, brought his glitz and glamour vision of "Miami in Chicago" to the Hollywood Park neighborhood of the North Park community. Nothing remains of the Tower Cabana Club, but in its glory days, Brotman’s Tower Cabana Club was the swankiest spot around.
The entrance to Tower Cabana; show your pass and get a towel. (September 1961)
Setting the stage for fun in the sun.
In 1955, on a narrow, two-block strip of land, leased from the North Shore Sanitary Canal and overlooking the canal, a total of 6.75 acres east of Jersey Avenue on Peterson Avenue is where Brotman built his Tower Cabana Club.
The former Tower Cabana Club site.
NOTE: The McDonald's on the SE corner of Peterson and Jersey Avenues was next door to the Tower Cabana Club. It was the first McDonald's IN the city of Chicago (the first McDonald's in Illinois was in Des Plaines). It was opened by James E. Maros, and was an original red & white tiled, eat-out-side building, located at 3241 West Peterson Avenue. It opened in late 1955 and is still a McDonald's.
Brotman's family plan for "poolside living" was extensive, costing $300,000 in 1955 ($2,845,000 today). The club had a snack bar, a wading pool designed for the toddler set, day camp activities under competent instructors, and a playground area far enough away from the cabanas to ensure a little peace and quiet for parents. Outdoor dances were scheduled for summer evenings.
And at the end of the day, there's dancing. Dapper Dan Belloc's combo (they're the ones in the cool Bermuda shorts) provide the music while the high school set does the hokey-pokey. Every day is a busy one at the Tower Cabana -- and the teens have great fun, from early morning arrival until parents call a curfew -- or perhaps, join them for a swim.
Other activities included the Aquacade show; water skiing in the pool, surfboard ballet, daredevil diving. Dancing for teens with entertainers like Ralph Marterie, Lola Dee, David Carroll, Eddy Howard, Nick Noble, the Crew Cuts, Len Dresslar, Georgia Gibbs, and many other famous people have performed at Tower Cabana Club over the years.
David Garfield, 17, and Linda Silverstein, 13, enjoy a go at the shuffleboard court. From David's expression, it would be safe to assume that Linda is winning this one!
The slide that Dede and Dave are shooting down is different from those you see at most playgrounds. This one deposits the daredevils in the Water!
Brotman was warned about palm trees in Chicago's frigid cold winters, but he ignored the naysayers. He imported eight 35-foot-high coconut palms from Florida and had them planted in cement blocks and chemically treated to withstand cold temperatures. When the fronds turned brown and fell to the ground, Brotman had them spray-painted green and nailed back up where they belonged. Sometimes the leaves turned brown but didn’t fall off. “If they don’t fall off,” Brotman complained to a Chicago Tribune reporter, “how do they expect to get painted?”
Looking north at the Tower Cabana Club (circa 1958). Note the natural gas storage tank 1 mile north on Kedzie and Whipple. Sometime in the mid-1970s, the tank was being dismantled and it caught fire. You could see and smell the fire for miles.
A new device that is often helpful in teaching children to swim was called "swim trainer," which was an inflatable rubber bag that is strapped to the back and gives the learner confidence and helps keep him in position.
Sherwin Winer, Chief swim instructor at Chicago's Tower Cabana Club encourages Marty Scott to try the inflated device called "swim trainer."
Sherwin Winer lowers Lawrence Wolf into position. The "swim trainer" permits the free use of arms.
Sherwin Winer buckles the device on Deborah Witkin, while Marcia Omens watches. Marcia's type of float does not put her in a swimming position so easily.
Sherwin Winer takes off, while his class swims along in his wake.
With 150 cabanas available for rent, Brotman offered families a plan for “poolside living” at a private club. Besides the full-size pool, there was a wading pool, the Decoma Day Camp, and a playground, far enough away from the cabanas to ensure a little peace and quiet for the adults.
Decoma Day Camp had its swimming activities at the Tower Cabana Club starting in 1956. Uncle Deutsch (left) and Uncle Miltie (right) were Decoma Day Camp co-directors.
The Chicago Tribune loved Tower Cabana; the neighbors? Not so much!
Steve Citrin on the Tower Cabana diving board.
Steve Citrin on the high dive springboard.
Steve Citrin tries out the lifeguard post at Tower Cabana.
In August 1955, a two-page spread in the Tribune, “The Florida Idea of Fun Catching on in Chicago,” showcased the delights of the Tower Cabana Club.
Jack Citrin standing in front of the cabanas.
Rose Citrin playing Mah Jongg at Tower Cabana.
But it wasn’t all sun and fun and beauty contests. The club fought city and neighborhood opposition throughout its existence. The first case, a battle with City Hall over whether Brotman could build a commercial project on land leased from the Sanitary District, went to the Illinois Supreme Court.

The city of Chicago argued they had zoned the land for single-family dwellings, but the judge ruled the city didn’t have the right to zone Sanitary District property. Not to mention the land was 50 feet west of a waterway used to drain sewage from North Shore suburbs into the city. Brotman won round one on January 30, 1955.
Refreshment time -- and relaxing on the lounges -- at the same time picking up a little sun are Heddy Greenberg (left), Roberta Lakes, and Jay Dushkin, all 13-year-olds.
Lifeguard Ronald Gordon, 16, makes sure that 16-year-old Leslie Duboe is safe at one end of the pool. Safe? She's touching the bottom.
On April 21, 1955, the day after his inauguration as 40th Ward Alderman, Seymour Simon demonstrated a seasoned pro’s grasp of Chicago neighborhood politics. He asked the Department of Streets and Sanitation to barricade the Peterson Avenue driveways leading into the Tower Cabana Club’s newly paved parking lot. “I’m not trying to stop the project,” Alderman Simon explained to the Tribune. “I just don’t want to help.”

During the zoning battle, Hollywood North Park Civic Association (HPNCA) came into existence. Founded by Gerald Specter and other local residents for the purpose of blocking the construction of the club, HNPCA fought Brotman on several issues to preserve the neighborhood’s quiet character and its property values.

Cold weather brought more controversy.
In November 1955, Brotman came up with the idea of offering club members ice skating during the off-season. His was no ordinary flood the backyard plan; Brotman enlisted the engineers of the Burge Ice Machine Company to build an icy surface over the pool that would stay frozen even in 60° weather. The ice froze but outdoor lighting and piped music heated up the neighbors.
Merle Citrin skating at Tower Cabana Club. (November 1957)
In October of 1956, the Tower Cabana Club forms the first curling club in Chicago in over 50 years.
Brotman’s ingenuity as a set designer was once again evident in December 1956 with the transformation of the palm trees into 45-foot Christmas trees. “No one would ever guess,” Brotman told the Tribune, “that I had those eight evergreens hauled down from Michigan by special truck, lashed them as close as possible to the palm trunks and steadied them with guy wires.”
In March of 1957, Ald. Simon came to Tower Cabana Club again. He proposed an ordinance that prohibited ice skating rinks that operated after 9pm within 150 feet of homes. The proposal came after Simon claimed there were complaints by homeowners in the Jersey and Peterson area that "piped music, noise, and bright lights" from the Tower Cabana Club created a nuisance in the neighborhood. Brotman stated the ordinance also threatens some 122 rinks operated by the park district and the city. Also, threatened is the operation of outdoor theaters. Brotman pointed out that when the recreational facility was built in 1955, two years ago, there were only six homes on Jersey Avenue and since then some 40 homes have been built. "Most of the home owner's children, even Ald. Simon's, swim and skate at the club." Brotman argued. "I think Simon is misguided. A facility such as this should be encouraged."

Brotman won that round but lost the next one. His scheme to boost revenues by adding a golf driving range met with neighborhood disapproval. “A pool is one thing, but a golf range in a quiet area is ridiculous,” said Specter. “I don’t want to see neighbor's kids dodging golf balls.”

Specter and the HNPCA won the round of golf. The experience of challenging Brotman’s Tower Cabana Club served Specter well for a history-making battle nearly twenty years later.
In 1974, the city closed the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, also located in Hollywood Park. The first Mayor Daley wanted to give the land to developer Harry Chaddick, who had plans for a shopping mall and high-rise apartment buildings. Specter and others fought to preserve the land for public use.

Specter was a huge player in keeping the Tuberculosis site out of the hands of commercial developers. He fought the Daley machine and won. As a result of the North River Coalition, the land occupied by the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium became Peterson Park and North Park Village.
The end of an era.
In 1966 Tower Cabana Club went out of business and its facilities quickly deteriorated, helped along by nature and vandals. HNPCA begged for its demolition and in 1968 the Sanitary District finally obliged. They then leased the site for a dollar a year to the Chicago Park District and to this day it remains a free and open space with a bike/walking path.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Friday, July 5, 2019

Ancient Illinois history beginning on the supercontinent of Pangaea.

We will follow the land that makes up modern Illinois, beginning from the Mesozoic era (250 to 65 million years ago ─ the Age of Dinosaurs).

Throughout the planet's 4 billion-year history, eight supercontinents (see list of the major supercontinents below) have formed and broken up due to the churning and circulation in the Earth's mantle, which makes up most of the planet's volume. The breakup and formation of supercontinents have dramatically altered the planet's history.

The hypothetical supercontinent called Pangaea (ancient Greek meaning "all lands") was assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago and began to break apart during the Triassic period (250,000,000 BC ─ 205,000,000 BC) and the Jurassic Period (205,000,000 BC to 135,000,000 BC). 
The land that Illinois sits on is the moving North American tectonic plate. There are seven major tectonic plates. Other than the North American plate, there is the; African plate, Antarctic plate; Eurasian plate; Indo-Australian plate; Pacific plate; and South American plate. 

In fact, today's Illinois was south of Earth's equator twice! During these times, it was covered with tropical forests, forming coal deposits over the millennia. Some of the Mazon Creek fossils discovered in Illinois are found nowhere else in the world, like the "Tully Monster." 

Some ancient life represented is ferns, insects, shrimp, jellyfish, and fish scales - fossilized in rock 310,000,000 to 200,000,000 million years ago before continents formed Pangaea in the Paleozoic era.
From Pangaea to the Modern Continents.

Over 260,000,000 million years ago, a shallow ocean covered the area, forming layers of limestone from the calcium carbonate shells of abundant snails, clams, and other sea life. The local laminar limestone deposits can easily find fossils of trilobites, mollusks, sponges, corals, and crinoids. Shark teeth and starfish have also been discovered here. An amateur paleontologist from Eyler, just east of Pontiac, found two new fossil crinoid species in Wagner Quarry south of Pontiac. Her husband, also a crinoid expert, named one of the new species pontiacensis, and the other, Christine, after his wife. 

A mile-high block of ice through the Ice Age was atop the landscape. When it melted, Lake Ancona formed in where it is now east-central Illinois with a clean sand bottom. It eventually drained, and many smaller lakes were formed. As the climate became drier, Ice Age megafauna moved in. Local finds of wooly mammoth tusks and teeth, along with a 50-pound copper nugget transplanted by the ice from the Mesabi Range iron ore area of northern Minnesota. Buffalo (American Bison) covered the area during the Pleistocene Era (aka the Ice Age - 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and again 500 to 300 years ago, only to finally disappear in the early 1800s. 

Bison bones were found along the area's banks of the Vermilion River in 2011. They were only the third discovery of bison bones east of the Mississippi River from the Holocene Era (12,000 years ago to the present day), indicating only sparse, intermittent perhaps, distribution of the bison in this area then. The other two Holocene discoveries were near Ottawa in a silica quarry and Mapleton, 12 miles downstream from Peoria, where the mouth of a tributary stream emptied bison carcasses into the Illinois River.

About 14,000 years ago, the first humans (the original indigenous people) arrived. Only a few of their early spear points (Clovis points) have been found in Illinois, which were lost in hunting these large game mammals. The Archaic Period peoples (8,000 BC to 1,000 BC) were wandering hunter groups following the game. Living in small groups, they roamed for food, camping for several days to weeks and then moving on. They produced spearheads commonly found along rivers, creeks, and the prairie. Today's artifacts were made from flint and chert, a form of metamorphosed limestone, deposits of which are rare in this area. Some of their weapons and tools include copper spear points from the Old Copper Culture (4000 BC to 1000 BC). A 6-inch copper point was found in Dwight, Illinois. The Archaic people found rare copper nuggets dropped here by retreating glaciers they hammered into tools and weapons. 
One of the most unique tools from this period is called "banner stones." These pieces of stone were of varied shapes with a longitudinal hole drilled in the center. They were slid onto a throwing stick, called an Atlatl (an Indian word meaning: spear-thrower). This extra weight and the extended leverage of the throwing stick enabled a hunter to throw a spear at a much higher speed, thus improving the chance of bringing down their prey.
Atlatl Basics

The Woodland Period (1000 BC to 1000 AD) saw more advanced cultures of settled groups in villages with gardens of sunflowers, squash, pumpkins, and beans to supplement hunting for game. Trade routes to Florida, Michigan, North Dakota, and other far-flung states were established for obtaining scarce items such as suitable stone for tools and weapons, copper for axes, and mica from Carolina for mixing with clay for stronger pottery. Workable stones from neighboring states like Indiana, obsidian (lava glass) from Wyoming, and copper from Minnesota and Wisconsin are evidence of that trading in Illinois. About 3,000 years ago, pottery first appeared in North America. That early crude pottery has been found here. Other finds include bear teeth and elk antlers — both species disappeared from the area long ago.

John McGregor, a Pontiac native who became the Director of the Illinois State Museum, found a blade that he determined was made by the same person who made the Mackinaw Cache blades located in Tazewell County, a group of blades widely recognized as the finest examples of "chipped" stone ever found in North America. He was involved in many of the early archaeological efforts in the state. He directed the Washburn, Illinois, excavating a mass burial near a creek containing four pits with approximately 200 individuals each! 

The Mississippian Period (800 AD to 1600 AD) saw a higher level of culture develop in North America. Instead of isolated sustenance gardeners and gatherers, maize (corn) was more widely introduced, planted in larger tracts, and remains today the dominant driver of our county's culture and economy. Two flint hoes 11 inches long were found at two locations along Rooks Creek and a cache of 26 hoes south of Pontiac. Simpler hoes from this time are found throughout the area. The use of these hoes marked the beginning of agriculture as we know it today. 

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Flint Hoe
Mississippian Period "Flint Hoe" — This flaked chert hoe head commonly shows use and wear along the bit edge. They were used for gardening or construction activities. This tool was widely used throughout the midwest and the southeastern United States. They typically range in size from 3 to 12 inches long.
 

The Mississippians began using corn as their primary community resource rather than just another private family garden staple. Cahokia points are found here, named after the Cahokia Mounds complex near Collinsville, which contains the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the Americas; Monk's Mound. Larger at its base than Egypt's Great Pyramid, Monk's Mound was the home of the Chief of what was, at the time, the largest city in the Americas. 
Indian drinking vessels were found near Cahokia, Illinois.
A copper falcon headdress piece was found at the mouth of the Vermilion River near Ottawa. Area peoples used the river as their highway for trade and cultural exchanges. A smoking pipe in the shape of a fish head and one of a bird's head are examples of other Illinois artifacts from this period.

Nearly all the information we have of the prehistoric native human inhabitants of the area comes from discoveries of what they left behind; burials, tools, and weapons buried in campsites and villages, and earthen works like Monk's Mound in Cahokia. Burial mounds were common all over Illinois, mostly by rivers, streams, and other bodies of water.

Most mounds in Illinois are gone now, succumbed to tilling the soil for farming, treasure hunters and looters. In the early twentieth century, a banker named Payne from Springfield excavated the Billet Road mounds and stripped them of all their manmade items, now lost history. A mound north of Fairbury along the river was excavated while digging a basement for a house, and it contained one individual and burial tools. 

Indigenous people produced no written language other than petroglyphs or picture art (examples 1 and 2) that depicted events, surreal imagery, and early art. No translatable written record was left to us. Names of individuals, their tribal names, battles, migrations, food issues, and weather; none of this information is known first-hand. Only when the onset of European migration westward from the east coast and southwest from New France (Canada) did any historical records begin appearing to gain insight into the first 12,000 years of human history in Illinois. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Major Supercontinents

The list is written in reverse-chronological order ("stratolithic order"). Dates are given as the approximate beginning of the supercontinent's formation, then the approximate ending of the breakup. The Notes column provides the geologic period of the fully formed supercontinent.
 mya=Million years ago    bya=Billion years ago 
Name

Years Ago
NOTES & Geologic Period
Pangaea 0.335 mya – 0.173 mya Phanerozoic > Paleozoic > Permian
Pannotia, aka Vendian 0.62 mya – 0.555 mya Precambrian > Proterozoic > Neoproterozoic > Ediacaran
Rodinia 1.071 mya – 0.75 bya Precambrian > Proterozoic > Neoproterozoic > Tonian
Columbia, (aka Nuna) 1.82–1.35 bya Precambrian > Proterozoic > Paleoproterozoic > Statherian
Kenorland 2.72–2.1 bya Neoarchean sanukitoid cratons and new continental crust formed Kenorland. Protracted tectonic magma plume rifting occurred 2.48 to 2.4 bya and this contributed to the Paleoproterozoic glacial events in 2.4 to 2.22 bya. The final breakup occurred 2.1 bya.
Ur 3.0–2.803 bya Classified as the earliest known landmass, Ur was a continent that existed three billion years ago. While probably not a supercontinent, one can argue that Ur was a supercontinent for its time as it was possibly the only continent on Earth, even if it was smaller than Australia is today. Still, an older rock formation now in Greenland dates back to Hadean times.
Vaalbara 3.6–2.803 bya Possibly the first supercontinent.
Superior Craton 4.031 bya Existed when Vaalbara was formed.
THE SUPERCONTINENT OF PANGAEA





Thursday, July 4, 2019

Piney Creek Ravine Nature Preserve, near Shiloh Hill, in Southern Illinois, has prehistoric rock art.

A secluded rock wall in Piney Creek Ravine Nature Preserve, about 2 miles south of Shiloh Hill, Illinois (15 miles east of Chester), is the setting for the largest collection of Indian rock art in Illinois. It's also home to an extensive collection of old graffiti carvings from more recent times.
The sandstone shelter at Piney Creek contains 200 documented examples of rock art, including petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings). An interpretive sign next to the wall explains that the designs likely originated from the Late Woodland (500-1000 AD) and Mississippian (1000-1550 AD) periods.
This sandstone shelter protects the rock art.
An example of some of the better-preserved petroglyphs.
An example of some of the better-preserved petroglyphs.
However, much of the prehistoric art is difficult to see. It's overshadowed by all of the names carved into the rock from the late 1800s and 1900s.
Settlers from 1878 couldn't resist carving their names into the rock.
This Masonic symbol was etched in 1913.
The graffiti presents somewhat of a quandary, however, because some of it is old enough to be considered historically significant in its own right. But it clearly detracts from the much more valuable prehistoric art.
Some people have tried to "enhance" the rock art by outlining it with paint or chalk.
Signs all along the trail warn against vandalism. But the damage has already been done.

While the rock art is no longer pristine, the rest of Piney Creek Ravine is relatively unspoiled. Managed as a State Natural Area, this nature preserve also features a beautiful sampling of the sandstone bluffs, canyons, waterfalls, and shelters that are found throughout Southern Illinois.

A two-mile trail loops around the ravine, but many visitors choose to scramble up and down Piney Creek.
A bluff along the lower part of the creek. Notice how the layers of rock have eroded at different rates.
The creek alternates between gravel and solid rock bottoms. Where the water encounters solid sandstone, it has carved a narrow crevice through the rock.
In other places, the water simply tumbles over shallow ledges.
And in one place along an unnamed tributary of Piney Creek, a trickle of water suddenly drops over a ledge into a canyon at least 20 feet below. 

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

The Ferris wheel axle from Chicago's 1893 World's Fair found in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri, buried after their 1904 World's Fair was over.

Touted as the Eighth Wonder of the World, George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (1859-1896) invented the Observation wheel for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago.

After the World's Columbian Exposition, the Ferris wheel was moved into the middle of Chicago's northside in 1895, where George Ferris opened "Ferris Wheel Park."

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Click ─► "Ferris Wheel Park" to see the Ferris wheel running in a one-minute film by the famous Lumiere Brothers pioneers of the beginning of moving pictures, and is one of the first films ever shot in Chicago. You'll see how slowly the wheel rotated, verified by the people's walking pace, the streetcars and horse-drawn wagons pace speed.

The Ferris wheel would delight fairgoers once more at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904, the largest World Fair ever held in the country up to 1904, from St. Louis (founded in 1764). Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark to explore the new Louisiana Territory in May 1804. Two years later, when the explorers returned in September 1806, the city became known as the "Gateway to the West" for the many mountain men, adventurers, and setters who followed the path of Lewis and Clark into the new frontier. The 1904 World's Fair was the centennial celebration of that original historical event that established St. Louis as the de facto "Gateway to the West." The "Gateway Arch," the famous 630-foot Arch on the banks of the Mississippi River, was completed in 1966 to commemorate the city's "Gateway to the West" moniker.

The Ferris wheel (264 feet high) came to a most ignominious end when it succumbed to a wrecking dynamite charge on May 11, 1906. Contrary to the demolition engineers' hopes that it would fall over on its side, it simply crumbled in place.
CLICK FOR A FULL-SIZE READABLE IMAGE.
The scrap handlers used torches to dismember and reduce all the component parts except the axle to a small, manageable size. At the time of its manufacture by Bethlehem Steel Company, the axle (axle 45½ feet in length and weighed in at 89,320 pounds) was the largest single piece of forged steel ever made in America. It was so massive with such a large thermal mass that torches were useless in cutting it down in size.
What happened next, no one knows. Typically, no one would care what happened to a then piece of scrap steel that, having performed its function, was condemned to the scrap heap. Nostalgia and a keen sense of history had taken root in St. Louis over the past several decades, at least as far as St. Louis 1904 World's Fair is concerned. The centennial of 1904 was celebrated in 2004. Historians and the public formed "The Worlds Fair Society in 1986."

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MYTH: There is rumor of a letter (circa 1950) from a descendant of an employee of the Chicago House Wrecking Company (later; Harris Brothers Company - Kit Home Sellers), who were contracted to dismantle the 1904 World's Fair that states that the axle was taken back to Chicago and put in the company's yard, and later, in the late 1910s, cut up the axle for scrap.

DEBUNKED: A cesium magnetometer located the axle under Skinker Boulevard at Wydown Boulevard and identified it in 2007 (see images below).

Imagine an imagined scenario in 1906 when a city official charged with cleaning up the area and returning to the city's business ordered his crew boss, "Get rid of that hunk of metal. Hide, bury, or do whatever, but I don't want to see it anymore."
Size of the axle during the reassembly before the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
Stories abound about how it was melted down or taken away for its scrap value. Others have said it was probably pulled by a team of mules from the concrete Ferris wheelbase to a small nearby lake just west of Skinker and Forsyth Boulevards (now covered by buildings), and then the little lake was back-filled. Still, other stories related that those mules might have dragged it to a dumpsite near Wydown Boulevard and University Land in Clayton, where methane gas still emanates from decomposing debris.

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A short time after the destruction of the Ferris wheel after the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition was overMr. John T. Jones of 703 Grand Boulevard, Iron Mountain, Michigan (built-in 1890 - date razed unknown), a personal friend of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., was engaged in building a large greenhouse for his wife, Rachel, as an addition to their home. Jones purchased some debris from the Ferris Wheel.

"It's just been wrecked from the St. Louis Fair. Think of having the original Ferris Wheel – [the] first one in the world – right here. It was the buy of a lifetime. I'll use the girders for the roof and the glass [from the gondola cars] for the windows. Imagine having a real plate glass greenhouse. It'll be the talk of the country," said Jones.

rumor
The Ferris wheel metal was used to build the trusses of Dunn's Bridge in Jasper County, Indiana. This is unfounded and very unlikely as the bridge's arches are not concentric. Some claim the metal was from another 1893 World's Fair building. 
This is all that is left of the Ferris wheel after demolition at St. Louis, MO.
On July 10th, 1893, an electrical fire started in the Cold Storage Building and swept through the entire exposition. The planners had been ill-prepared for such a catastrophe, and within a day, 16 people would be dead, a dozen of them Chicago firefighters who had been trapped by the spreading flames. Several buildings collapsed the last one among them the Machinery Hall. Examining pictures of the Machinery Hall (the Electricity Hall is also a possibility), there is an almost uncanny similarity between the roof arches of those buildings and Dunn’s Bridge.
Machinery Hall, 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
Using technical means to attempt to locate the axle, Professor Patrick Shore of the Physics Department at nearby Washington University and his class in 1996 conducted a magnetic survey on the golf course in northwest Forest Park (opened in 1876, the 1,371-acre park includes the Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis Science Center and Planetarium, St. Louis Zoo, the outdoor Muny Theater, the World's Fair Pavillion, a dozen restaurants, athletic fields & golf courses, and over 35 other attractions today).

They did succeed in confirming the location of the Ferris wheel foundation by its large steel bolts and other steel frameworks, but there was no axle. Another remote sensing survey, this time using a ground-probing radar, was conducted and appeared to show something along Alexander Drive just west of Skinker Boulevard. Still, another survey, this time using an infrared scanner, was flown over the area and claimed to be able to see thermal indications of the axle under Alexander Drive just a hundred yards or so from Skinker. Based on that indication, a local TV station sponsored using a backhoe to dig at that site, finding only some clay water pipes.

Sheldon Breiner, with a technical background in geophysical exploration for natural resources, was contacted for yet another try to locate the axle through technological means. He applied one geophysical method, magnetic surveying, to find items of cultural or sometimes strategic interest. Breiner contacted Gene Kiernan, a St. Louis World's Fair Society member, to conduct a magnetic survey over prospective sites in and around the original location of the Ferris wheel. He was introduced to an archaeologist from Washington University, Dr. Carol Diaz-Granados, who had written papers on the subject of the 1904 World's Fair, among other things. We considered the lore and the confirmed background regarding what might have happened to the axle. The dimensions and general ferromagnetic properties of such a piece of steel were sufficiently known to allow me to plan the survey. Breiner was also familiar with the geology of the St. Louis area regarding possible magnetic interference.

The prime areas deemed worth surveying were:
  • That part of the golf course is just east of Skinker Boulevard. south of Forsyth and adjacent to Skinker near the original site of the Ferris wheel
  • The debris burial areas near WydownBoulevard . and University Land
  • Wydown Boulevard  from Skinker to the west for about 400 yards
  • Alexander Dr. from Skinker to its intersection with Woodbourne Dr.
Proposed areas to conduct magnetic reconnaissance survey, May of 2007.
The survey was conducted from 8 AM to 8 PM on Sunday, May 13, 2007, and 8 AM to 2 PM the following day. He initially conducted several short reconnaissance surveys to assess the magnetic noise background, the presence of magnetically disturbing under-street utilities and possible false magnetic targets. 
Sheldon Breiner on Skinker Boulevard with a cesium magnetometer GPS.
The magnetic target for this survey is large, long, made of steel, and, if still present, is located in a reasonably small area. The fact that it is long and buried horizontally allowed relatively wide spacing of the survey lines. The axle is made from steel and not just iron. Hence, the magnetic anomaly is due to permanent magnetization, which is always much more prominent and accessible to detect and/or map. Similarly, the fact that this object was cast as a single piece of steel rather than several parts produces a large anomaly without self-canceling individually magnetized component parts.

The proposed areas were walked carrying the magnetometer in what is termed 'search mode' where the data are not recorded but observed as one walks, making a note in real-time of anomalies. The sensor on the golf course was carried affixed to the staff with the staff held horizontally about 2 feet above the ground. In the streets, the sensor was carried at about 6 feet. Many anomalies were noted on the golf course, some of which were undoubtedly the steel bolts and fixtures related to the Ferris wheel foundation. However, some significant anomalies were noted under Skinker adjacent to the golf course. It was quickly pointed out that anomalies due to parked (or passing) vehicles were small relative to the vast anomalies noted under Skinker.

The local park on Wydown, due east from the school, had virtually no magnetic anomalies of any kind, though it was suspected as being a possible dumpsite for the Fair. A quick walk-through was carried out in search mode along Wydown Terrace and Alexander Drive, the schoolyard adjacent to Wydown School, and along the east and west heading lanes of Wydown near Skinker and the median strip in between.

The only anomaly in the areas covered that was large enough to evaluate seriously was found under the southbound lanes of Skinker roadway at its intersection with Wydown. This anomaly was first noted on extensions of lines that walked out from the golf course onto Skinker. In the times between traffic flows and stop-light-mediated times, Breiner surveyed all around the site of the anomaly, first in search mode and then, using the differential GPS, in 'survey mode' where the data are recorded. It was essential to see if any other such significant anomalies were possibly associated with it. He surveyed the width of Skinker and the length from just south of Alexander to a hundred yards north of Wydown, finding no other significant anomalies. There was not enough time to conduct a systematic, gridded survey of the remaining golf course section around the Ferris wheelbase or the area northwest of the Ferris wheel foundation.
Location of the axle under Skinker Boulevard at its intersection with Wydown Boulevard.
When the anomaly was finally delineated, it appeared to be caused by a long, possibly horizontal, source, trending in a North-North-East direction, about 200' south of the Ferris wheel's base. The anomaly was more significant than anything originating from sub-street utilities or any other possible industrial source. It was not of geologic origin as much of Eastern Missouri is underlain by limestone, which is usually as close to non-magnetic as any typical rock type.

That this size agrees pretty well with my crude estimates is mainly circumstantial, as the basic fundamentals represented only rough averages accumulated from years of experience of the magnetic effects of iron and steel objects in an urban or industrial context for a variety of unusual industrial, military and cultural/historical things. Breiner did derive the estimates weeks before arriving on the scene in St. Louis.
Location of the axle under Skinker Boulevard. Looking NE towards Forest Park.
Several profiles were obtained along and across the presumed location of the axle. The profile and the modeled profile based upon a steel cylinder 45 feet long and 3 feet in diameter are shown in the figure. The south end of the axle is at a depth of between 7 and 10 feet beneath the pavement at the location indicated in the images shown here. The north end of the axle is not as well defined and could be somewhat deeper, perhaps as a consequence of halting, in mid-stage, the efforts to bury the axle.


1904 - During the St Louis World's Fair at the Observation Wheel's foundation.
Note that there were no streets here in 1904. It was parkland.
1906 - immediately after the demolition of the Wheel. Still no roads.
2007- under Skinker Boulevard at Wydown Boulevard.
Many have a story about what has happened to the axle of the famous Observation Wheel. Life and spirit revolved — figuratively and literally — around this icon of days gone by, from its creation for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. It continued to have a life for the next century, although symbolic. While no one has seen or touched this steel behemoth since its burial in May of 1906, it appears to have been rediscovered less than 200 feet from its last known sighting.

Dr. Sheldon Breiner died on October 9, 2019, at his home in Portola Valley, California, near Palo Alto. He was 82 years old. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 
Dr. Sheldon Breiner, Contributor