Chicago Tribune Video on Blockson Workers and Survivors

The Chicago Tribune made this video-interview with former Blockson Joliet workers and survivors:

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Beautiful Fall Colors at Gerdes Grove, Twelve Mile Grove in Wilton Center, Illinois

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Beautiful fall colors are on display at Gerdes Grove and the Laughton Preserve in Wilton Center, Illinois.  The preserves are part of the Will County Forest Preserve District.  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois  Laughton Preserve, Wilton Center, Illinois Gerdes Grove, Wilton Center, Illinois According to the Forest Preserve District of Will County's website : " Laughton Preserve began with the District's acquisition of an 8-acre parcel from the Gerdes family, and has grown to 430 acres from extensive acquisitions in the 1990s and in 2006.  The preserve contains approximately 2 miles of Forked Creek and has been left largely undisturbed, as it protects a remnant of the historic Twelve Mile Grove (a prairie grove 12 miles along the road from Joliet to Danville), portions of the 1832 Ce-Na-Ge-Wine and Joseph Laughton Reservations, and the historic Wallingford Settlement in Wilton ...
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Historic Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 Steam Engine to Travel Through Eastern Will County

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Union Pacific Railroad's Big Boy 4014 Steam Engine will travel through eastern Will County on Monday, September 9, 2024.  The trip is part of Union Pacific's Heartland of America Tour . Big Boy 4014 visited Illinois in 2019, when tens of thousands lined its route to catch a glimpse of the steam engine: The steam engine is scheduled to depart Rochelle's Railroad Park at 9:00 a.m. and arrive at Watseka at 5:00 p.m..  You can track Big Boy 4014 at Union Pacific's Steam Locomotive Tracking Map.   The Steam Engine will pass through Crete and Beecher before continuing south towards Watseka.
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Oral History of the Joliet Arsenal, Interview with a Woman who worked in Munitions

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by ann baskerville I recently had the opportunity to interview a woman who worked at the Joliet Arsenal from 1942-1944.  Although I had known this woman the entirety of my adult life, I had no idea of her experiences working for the arsenal, nor any idea of the dramatic experiences she endured as a result of her work at the Joliet Arsenal. She worked in the fuse bay, making bombs.  One of the chemicals involved in the making of the bombs, tetral, caused her to develop tetral dermatitus.  She was in St. Joe's Hospital  in Joliet for two months and required 14 blood transfusions.  All of her hair fell out.  She "shed every bit of skin off of my body, and my teeth turned grey." She remembers a Catholic Sister working at St. Joe's remarked, "Oh my God, you're like a fish!" upon seeing her peeling skin.  Many Sisters worked at St. Joes, she said, doing all tasks including scrubbing the floor by hand.   Although she could not return to work...
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