Chicago O'Hare International Airport UFO sighting occurred on November 7, 2006.

At approximately 4:15 PM on November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees was witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17. 

A passenger photo shot from inside the terminal.

The object was first spotted by a ramp employee pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprised Flight 446's crew of the object above their aircraft. The object was also witnessed by pilots, airline management and mechanics. No air traffic controllers reported seeing the object, and it did not show up on radar.

Witnesses described the object as completely silent, 6 to 24 feet in diameter and dark gray in color. Several independent witnesses outside of the Airport also saw the object. One described a disc-shaped craft hovering over the Airport, which was "obviously not clouds." According to this witness, the object shot through the clouds at high velocity, leaving a clear blue hole in the cloud layer. The hole reportedly seemed to close itself shortly afterward.

According to the Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch, "The disc was visible for approximately five minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it." There is no CLEAR photographic or video evidence of the UFO.

News sources report O'Hare UFO sighting.

Both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initially denied that they had any information on the O'Hare UFO sighting until the Chicago Tribune, which was investigating the report, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FAA then ordered an internal review of air-traffic communications tapes to comply with the Tribune FOIA request, which subsequently uncovered a call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower concerning the UFO sighting.

The FAA's stance concludes that the sighting was caused by a weather phenomenon and that the agency would not investigate the incident. According to astronomer Mark Hammergren, weather conditions on the day of the sighting were right for a "hole-punch cloud," an unusual weather phenomenon often mistakenly attributed to unidentified flying objects.

UFO investigators have argued that the FAA's refusal to look into the incident contradicts the agency's mandate to investigate possible security breaches at American airports, such as, in this case, an object witnessed by numerous airport employees and officially reported by at least one of them, hovering in plain sight, over one of the busiest airports in the world. Some witnesses interviewed by the Tribune were apparently "upset" that federal officials declined to further investigate the matter. NARCAP published a 155-page report on the sighting and has called for a government inquiry and improved energy-sensing technologies: "Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or seen visually from the control tower, it constitutes a potential threat to flight safety."

The Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story was picked up by major mainstream media groups such as CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, The Chicago Tribune, and NPR.

On February 11, 2009, The History Channel aired an episode of the television show UFO Hunters titled Aliens at the Airport, in which they reviewed the incident.

Compiled By Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The History of Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory in Chicago.

After World War II Chicago’s Hollywood Park neighborhood underwent rapid development, attracting many Jewish families from the west side. You’d think they would have been thrilled that a family-owned business from the old neighborhood wanted to follow them to the north side, but Hollywood Park didn’t exactly welcome Sol Lazar with open arms.

Lazar wanted to relocate his business, Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory—a business he started in 1913 at 3612 West 12th Street (12th Street renamed Roosevelt Road on May 25, 1919)—to a large plot of land he owned in the North Park community.

Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory at 3612 West 12th Street, Chicago.

Sol Lazar built a new factory with a retail deli at the front of the building in 1958. It was located at 5511-29 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago.

Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory at
5511-29 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago.

On March 12, 1957, Nathan M. Cohen heard a case brought by Sol Lazar who sued to rezone the property on Kedzie to build a new pickle and sausage factory on his land. Willis W, Helfrich, CTA assistant Secretary, testified he could smell a "Nauseating" odor as far as 125 feet away when he visited the Roosevelt Road Location. Son Seymour Lazar told reporters the jars Helfrich brought and opened were from the garbage can behind the factory. 

Zeamore A. Ader, attorney for the Hollywood Park association, alleges that Lazar's Kosher Sausage Factory has been issued a building permit in December of 1957. Lazar said a permit had been issued and he plans to construct a factory on the premises for smoking and packing sausages.

In 1958 Lazar’s opened his modern facility at 5511 North Kedzie Avenue. (today, Northside College Prep High School is  located on the site.) In hindsight, Lazar may have been right about the impact of his plant being good for the neighborhood. Although the city originally zoned the east side of Kedzie south of Bryn Mawr for residential development, the small businesses and light manufacturing shops that eventually lined the street contributed to the economic stability of the neighborhood and lowered the population density of an already crowded area.

And the smell? I don't remember there being any smell, but that of cooked meat. My folks shopped at Lazars. The deli counter was on the left as you walked in. There were a few chairs on the right at the windows facing Kedzie. Lazar's was a busy butcher shop. We waited for our number to be called. My personal favorite was their 4 to a pound hot dogs -- or as they called them -- 'dinner franks.' They had a wonderful taste, unlike the bland Vienna hot dogs served by most Chicagoland hot dog joints. We'd also buy a whole beef brisket, which was our family's second-best meal, next to my Mom's roasted chicken on Friday nights.

Sol Lazar died at 76 on Sunday, June 9, 1969.

Sol Lazar’s daughter and her husband, who had worked at Lazar’s on Kedzie, uphold the legacy of Lazar’s Kosher Meats in Jerusalem, Israel. On the wall of the Jerusalem store are photographs of both Chicago Lazar stores; the first was on 12th street on the west side; the second was on Kedzie Avenue on the north side. 

Lazar’s Kosher Meats storefront in Jerusalem, Israel. (2015)

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Lincoln Village Theater was the last movie palace built in Chicago.

In August of 1968, Attorney Oscar A. Brotman (1916-1994) opened the 1,440-seat Lincoln Village Theater at 6101 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. It was located in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center at Lincoln Avenue and  McCormick Boulevard in Chicago, about two blocks upriver from Brotman's shuttered and soon-to-be-demolished Tower Cabana Club (1955-1966) at Peterson and Jersey Avenues.

Brotman (President) had a partner, Leonard Sherman. In 1968, Brotman & Sherman Theaters, Inc. (Brotman also owned South Shore Amusements, Inc.) owned 14 Chicago area movie theaters, making it one of the largest local chains.

Lincoln Village Theater Grand Opening - Friday, August 2, 1968.

Reminiscent of Miami Beach Art Deco style, as was his Tower Cabana Club, the theater's brilliant white façade sparkled in the sunlight. Tall red neon cursive lettering atop the roof gave the building more height and retro flair. A man recalls seeing Lincoln Village Theater from the Church Street bridge over the North Shore Sanitary Channel, a distance of several miles. It was the last single-screen movie house of this size built in Chicago, the previous attempt at bringing 1920s-era glamour to the movie-going experience.

Lincoln Village Theater was just like some old-school, fabulous downtown Chicago theaters when downtown was beginning to lose theaters. The lobby was expansive and luxurious, lit by dramatic wall sconces and a working fireplace. There was a sunken seating area and fancy restrooms. A place to see and be seen.

Inside the theatre, extra-wide aisles led to extra-cushy seats. A wood-paneled balcony structure rose off the main floor. There wasn't a bad seat in the house, thanks to stadium-style seating.

It took nearly five minutes to move the gold fabric horizontally and vertically, floor-to-ceiling curtains, accentuating the glamour of the old-time live stage shows. You knew something big was about to happen.

No expense was spared on technical specs, either. The theater had a Cine-Focus 35mm and 70mm projection, a scope screen, and a six-channel stereophonic sound system.

The FLAT format is slightly smaller than 2 times wide and 1 times tall.
SCOPE format is somewhat broader than 2 times wide and 1 times tall.

The opening movie was 'No Way to Treat a Lady.' The same year brought 'Green Berets,' 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'The Producers,' and 'How Sweet It Is,' to the theater.

Lincoln Village Theatre was booked for a variety of acts as well as movies. In December 1968, Chicago's Royal European Marionette Theatre settled in for a weeklong run of its 'Wizard of Oz' play. The Brothers Zim Revue played for two nights. The Barry Sisters, four nights only. Mickey Katz, "America's favorite Yiddish comedian," played the Lincoln Village, as did Larry Best and Eileen Brennan. The live, closed-circuit telecast of the 1970 Cassius Clay-Jerry Quarry fight, one-half of the 'Double Dynamite' package, sold out in 45 minutes at $7.50 a seat ($58.00 today). 

SIDEBAR:

The 20-Minute Rule as it relates to film viewership, not just film criticism. Is 20 minutes enough time to consider a movie fully? When this topic came up, Roger Ebert often cited “Brotman’s Law,” named after Chicago movie exhibitor Oscar Brotman, which declared that “If nothing has happened by the end of the first reel, nothing is going to happen.” A reel of film is 1,000 feet, and about ten minutes when projected, but most movies are projected two reels at a time, which means “the first reel” is about 20 minutes — hence, another variation on The 20-Minute Rule.

Temple Beth-El, the former West Rogers Park Jewish congregation that outgrew its Touhy and Kedzie Avenue building, rented the theater for the Jewish High Holidays at the movie theater. In 1981, Temple Beth Israel (purchased land in Skokie at Howard and Crawford in May 1961) held its High Holiday services at the Lincoln Village movie theatre. Portable lighting was brought in to brighten the theater for services.

In 1981, Plitt Theaters purchased the Brotman & Sherman Theaters.

Under new ownership, the Lincoln Village Theater was partitioned into three oddly shaped boxes, then the building was razed around 2000. The site is new construction and is a Ross Dress For Less Store.

Chicagoland Movie Theaters Operated by Brotman & Sherman Theaters:

• Avalon Regal Theater, Chicago
• Capitol Theatre Capitol Theatre, Chicago
• Carnegie Theatre Carnegie Theatre, Chicago
• Cinema Theater Cinema Theater, Chicago
• Highland Park Theatre, Highland Park
• Highland Theater Highland Theater, Chicago
• Hillside Mall Cinemas, Hillside
• Lincoln Village Theaters, Chicago
• Loop Theater, Chicago
• Metropolitan Theatre, Chicago
• Oakland Square Theater, Chicago
• Oasis Drive-In, Des Plaines
• Parthenon Theatre, Hammond, Indiana
• Rhodes Theatre, Chicago

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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.

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. 

sidebar 

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.

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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