Some years ago I spoke at the Lemont Historical Society on the history of local golf courses. While doing research for the talk, I stumbled across one of the first courses in the area, the Palos Golf Course, owned and operated by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC).
The course opened in 1921 and closed in the early 1940s when the property in Red Gate Woods was leased by the FPDCC for the purpose of creating a nuclear reactor (the Manhattan Project) under the direction of the University of Chicago. This led to creation of the atomic bomb. Because the property was adjacent to the golf course, the top-secret nature of the project mandated closure of the course. Clearly it wouldn’t have been a good idea for golfers to look through the fence and wonder what was going on.
I previously wrote about the course in some detail. Click for more info:
https://www.patcamallierebooks.com/2015/04/the-lost-golf-course-of-sag/
I was able to verify local lore that Al Capone played the course and used the clubhouse during prohibition, along with reports that Al’s brother, Ralph Capone, operated a bottling company in Lemont and that a stone barn on the Brown Farm in Lemont had been used to store beverages during Prohibition. That was enough to interest me in the site of the golf course, but the proximity to the Manhattan Project made it even more so.
Since that original blog, I’ve learned a lot about the course. I was contacted by a gentleman through the historical society. He wanted to compare notes with me about the old course, as Dave and his sister Sandy had lived on the property as children in the 1950s. The course had been closed, and the clubhouse abandoned but not yet demolished. Dave and Sandy lived on a farm that once served the caretaker of the golf course, their family tasked with keeping an eye on the property and reporting vandals, trespassers, and fires.
Over the next couple of years I met with Dave and Sandy on a number of occasions and we walked the area, where little was left to be seen. By this time I was interested enough that I picked Dave’s and Sandy’s brains for memories of their time there.
Research had established that Argonne National Laboratory operated the first nuclear reactors, CP-2 and CP-3, in red Gate Woods for ten years. The reactors were shut down on May 15, 1954, and buried on the site. The cleanup involved transferring high-level nuclear waste to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for disposal. The remainder was buried forty feet deep, encased in concrete, in Red Gate Woods Forest Preserve, where a monument marks the burial site today. Since the first time I walked the area and found the monument, signs have been put up with further information.
Then I chanced upon a group of pictures of the old clubhouse and course on a Facebook page, Exploring Mount Forest. The author of the page had found remnants of the clubhouse, farm, and course. He agreed to meet me and show me the artifacts.
This is when the place really came to life for me. Limestone borders still lined where the entrance road had been, stone pavers visible beneath the dirt path now and then, pieces of the clubhouse foundation, the foundation of the farmhouse and pole barn Dave had described–all had been hidden due to the years when forest was allowed to reclaim the area. We even found a piece of the old red tile roof from the clubhouse. I could visualize the places and their proximity to 107th Street and Saganashkee Slough, and other known places.
Could I write a mystery story about this place? Maybe include organized crime?
You bet I could! The result: The Mystery at Mount Forest Island.
Click here to read more details about the course from my blog of April 15, 2015, “The Lost Golf Course of Sag.”https://www.patcamallierebooks.com/2015/04/the-lost-golf-course-of-sag/.
The Mystery at Mount Forest Island is now available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Click here to order: https://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Mount-Forest-Island-Historical-ebook/dp/B086GNGYV8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KIV7WUJKM94G&dchild=1&keywords=the+mystery+of+mount+forest+island&qid=1588700117&sprefix=the+mystery+of+mount%2Caps%2C190&sr=8-1
Your posts are most informative, Pat. I lived in Palos Park (1953-1965) and I was aware of Argonne National Labs but not all the history of their time on 104th Avenue or the location of their activity. In those days, we did not travel about that much and I was young. My explorations were toward the city rather than Lemont. My husband and I spent a great amount of time exploring the Palos Woods before we were married, on foot and on horseback, and know many of the areas you mention in your books. We also danced at the Willowbrook Ballroom in the early 1960s. Big band sounds and delightful dancing.
As mentioned on a Facebook post, I am also familiar with Dowagiac but not with Pokagon. I do not recall that location along the highway between Niles and Dowagiac – perhaps in those times (1950s) it was not a town so much as a ‘wide place in the road’ as my father used to say. Our summer cottage was at Twin lakes about 7 miles NE of Dowagiac. I do not recall ever seeing Indians in the area, but that could be because we did not happen to be where they were.