Carbondale police seeks department's history

As work progresses on the new Carbondale police station Police chief Jody O'Guinn is looking for pieces of the department's history to display in the new building.

They already have some old uniforms and a badge from the only Carbondale officer killed in the line of duty, Leonard Alonzo Sizemore (1879-1933).

Carbondale escaped pretty easily most major tribulations of the Prohibition Era in the 1920s. A running gun battle by a group of teenage wannabe gangsters was the biggest event that I've found. Two of whom were later approached by Charlie Birger to kill West City Mayor Joe Adams, but turned him down.

O'Guinn told the Carbondale Times that the historical display would serve an important purpose.

"It shows the officers where we came from and where we're going... What it was like for police work in years past," O'Guinn said.

Persons with information, photographs or other artifacts that could be displayed can call Chief O'Guinn at 618-457-3200, ext. 421, or e-mail him at joguinn@ci.carbondale.il.us.

New Director Named for Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum

The head of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has taken another job along those same lines. Eileen Mackevich was selected Friday as the new executive director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield. She starts the job the last week of this month.

She says fundraising and making the museum even more interactive are at the top of her list.

Congratulations Machevich on the new job.

Secrets of the Herrin Gangs

The Secrets of the Herrin Gangs, my latest book, has arrived from the printers! This 96-page paperback gives a unique inside view of the Shelton Brothers and Charlie Birger from the 1920s, as well as in in-depth account of the gangster known as the brains of the Herrin outfit who worked for both gangs.

Ralph Johnson, co-author, was the alias of a Shelton gangster who decided to cash out when he got out of the gang temporarily at the end of the Gang War in January 1927. He sold his inside account to the St. Louis Star, and then to the N.E.A. news service which distributed his story in a 10-part series that newspapers printed from coast to coast that month. For the first time all ten accounts are collected on one volume.

I first ran across Johnson's stories in the clippings from the St. Louis Star in the Paul Angle Papers at the Chicago Historical Society. Angle, was the Illinois historian who wrote the classic, Bloody Williamson, more than a half century ago.

When I started this round of Bloody Williamson era research a couple of years ago I had two questions dealing with Johnson's account. One, "Was he for real?", and if he was, then, "Who was he?" since he freely admitted Johnson was his alias.

The second half of the book deals with those questions and reveals the real man behind the pseudonym. He had quite an interesting criminal career.

I won't reveal his name here in this post, but I'll give you a hint, if you look on the cover closely you'll see his name. He's also the double mugshot on the cover as well.

Click on the "Buy Now" button if you want purchase the book online and get a signed copy. You can also mail your orders to IllinoisHistory.com, PO Box 1142, Marion, Illinois.

Books cost $9.95 each, plus $2.25 shipping and handling for a total of $12.20, plus another 80 cents sales tax if you live in Illinois, for a total of $13.

Check out my IllinoisHistory.com Books page for my other books on the Old Slave House, the Bloody Vendetta, Lincoln stories from the Civil War, and the history of Gallatin County, Illinois.

Secrets of the Herrin Gangs Goes to the Printers

It's on its way. Secrets of the Herrin Gangs has been sent to the printers and I can now take a breath for a moment or two before jumping into the next project.

Like the earlier post from August, the Secrets book is an inside account of Bloody Williamson as told by a member of the Shelton Gang who had worked for both the Shelton Brothers as well as Charlie Birger. Unlike the earlier post the new book is a 96-page paperback that expands on Ralph Johnson's inside story with what I've discovered about the man behind the Ralph Johnson alias.

I won't tell you the name in this post, but if you click on the cover and look at the signature in the bottom right corner, you'll find it. He was a Benton native who played a much larger role in Bloody Williamson than anyone realized. It's also his fingerprints on the book as well.

For the last couple of years I've been digging into the region's Prohibition Era history which has grabbed my interest like the Old Slave House did a decade ago. I think I'm working on four or five (or maybe six) different Bloody Williamson projects from a screenplay with a St. Louis-based filmmaker to publishing other writers' works, as well as working on my own writing projects.

I'm still looking for photographs and stories for an upcoming pictorial history of Southern Illinois in the 1920s that will be titled, "The Bloody Years." I've found some real neat ones that's not been published before as well as intriguing angles on the big stories that are just now being uncovered.

The new "Secrets of the Herrin Gangs" will be out in mid October. Within the next 24 hours or so (I've got a couple of other deadlines to meet before then), I'll have links up for some special offers for those wanting to pre-order the book before it gets shipped back to me.

New Shelton Gang Book Available

While I'm still working on my pictorial history of Southern Illinois in the 1920s, I've come across of gem of original history that I wanted to bring out.

Ralph Johnson ran with the Shelton Gang during Prohibition. As the Shelton-Birger Gang War wound to close in December 1926 and the first week or so of 1927, he decided to get out and cash out.

The way they did it back then wasn't much different than today. He went out and sold his story to the press, first to the St. Louis Star and then to the NEA news service which distributed his story as a 10-part series for newspapers across the country.

They called it "Secrets of the Herrin Gangs". In it Johnson told the inside account of life in the Shelton Gang as well as well as his own experiences with Charlie Birger and his gang.

It's been a key source of original gang life for decades. Now, for the first time it's available in one volume. I've added a new foreword with information about the life and times of Johnson, as well as who I think he really was. I've also added footnotes with corrections, dates and additional information, as well as an index.

The booklet retails for $9.95, plus shipping and handling, and sales tax if you live in Illinois. To order online just click the "Buy Not" button below.

SOLD OUT

For more information on books from IllinoisHistory.com, including books on the Old Slave House, the Bloody Vendetta, Abraham Lincoln or Gallatin County, Illinois, check out the book page at www.IllinoisHistory.com/books.

Orders can also be mailed in with a check or money order for $9.95 plus $2.25 s/h. Illinois residents add $0.85 sales tax, for a total of either $12.20 or $13.05.
The book is also available at the Book Daddy at Taylor's Mini Mall on Hwy 15 east of Fairfield.

UPDATE - I'm out of stock with this version of the book, though Taylor's Mini Mall in Fairfield and the Book Emporium in Harrisburg may still have copies. There's a new version at the printers that has much more on the man behind the alias of Ralph Johnson. It will be out in mid-October.

Books from the Bloody Williamson Era

History of Theme Park Proposals in Southern Illinois

After last Saturday's announcement of a major new tourism and retail development more than one person has commented to me that they first thought it was about Busch Gardens, Marion's long-running urban legend that's been circulating for a quarter century.

It's not. Legoland is the park the developer has been trying to get, at least in its earlier incarnation at Glen Carbon. Whether its parent company, Merlin Entertainment, will look at Southern Illinois is not clear.

But Legoland isn't the first and neither is Busch Gardens (a project that has never been verified). The Tony Watkins Company, also of Glen Carbon, is still pursuing plans for Music City, Illinois, destination and convention resort in western Perry County near Pinckneyville.

Announced in 2007, Perry County officials were still publicly dealing with the developer the following year and the company is still promoting the county as a site of its North American plans on its website.

Even before the company arrived on the scene the land in question had been the subject of theme park interest and speculation for decades according to tourism people I've talked with over the years.

Going back a couple of decades we had the Amazing World of Superman proposed for Metropolis and an unnamed Silver Dollar City-type development pushed by area tourism promoter and operator Wayman Presley for three different locations in the western Illinois Ozarks.

History of Legoland and Southern Illinois

Saturday's announcement of a new destination shopping and entertainment center on Marion's north side did not mention Legoland, but that was part of the deal in its previous incarnation, and city officials believe it still is.

Up until last Thursday, April 29, Bruce Holland had been pushing the University Town Center development at Glen Carbon, Illinois, in the St. Louis Metro-East area. After opposition to the use of STAR bonds, the local state Rep. Tom Holbrook, dropped legislation that would create the state incentives.

At some point last week Southern Illinois lawmakers state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, and state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, jumped on board. After a rash of meetings with the lawmakers, area mayors and economic development officials, Holland announced plans for the Marion project.

The clock though is ticking. House Speaker Michael Madigan wants to adjourn at the end of this week.

So what's the history on Legoland and the Midwest?

Four years ago Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin Entertainments Group, announced that his company was "actively engaged" in finding partners and a location for a fifth Legoland theme park. They already operated three in Europe and one in North America at Carlsbad, California.

The Theme Park Insider reported the news on Jan. 19, 2006, under a headlined time frame of "3 to 5 years":

Varney said that the company's goal is to develop its Legoland parks as "mini Disney Worlds," destination resorts attracting visitors over several days, rather than just destinations for local day-trippers. As a result, Varney suggested that Merlin might build new installations of its SeaLife and Dungeon amusements next to Legolands, as well as working with local governments and developers to encourage more tourist development around the parks.

Important for Marion and Southern Illinois is the following quote.

"We have three parks in Europe. Looking to the future, in the blue sky, I could see three parks in North America, too. With a Legoland here in Southern California, it does not take a genius to see the Midwest and the East Coast as potential new sites," Varney said.

Merlin Entertainment found its East Coast location at Winter Haven, Florida last year when it acquired the legendary Cypress Gardens site.

In the Midwest, they first looked at Kansas City before targeting the St. Louis region.

In June 2007, the city council at Columbia, Illinois, learned that St. Louis developer G. J. Crewe, which they had been working with since 2004 to develop the Columbia Crossings site, had landed the interest of Merlin to locate a Legoland as part of the proposed 2,000 acre development. Amazingly, the city backed out of the plan.

Skip forward a couple of years with a new developer, Holland, this time, and the idea of a suburban St. Louis Legoland resurfaces at Glen Carbon, Illinois, on the northeast side of the MetroEast.

Holland was able to get work with his local lawmakers to get the STAR bonds incentive legislation through the General Assembly in 2009, but Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed the bill with a change that only half of the state sales tax increment could be used rather than all of it.

Plans were to address that this year, but opposition grew from other MetroEast mayors over the retail development which they feared would threatened their own retail areas. That opposition killed the Glen Carbon proposal last week.

While Legoland officials have officially "downplayed" an Illinois location, company officials did approach Quinn last October while he visited Copenhagen to lobby the International Olympic Committee in support of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. For those who don't know, Lego is based in Denmark.

Holland probably didn't mention the park because he was still trying to sell Merlin Entertainment on Southern Illinois. Still the possibilities are tempting for area tourism. Holbrook's legislation provides an idea of the minimum investment on a theme park needed to qualify for the bonds - $100 million. That's an investment we can take to the bank.

On a lighter side, here's something we probably won't see in a Land of Lincoln Legoland.



NOTE: Also posted at the Southern Illinois Tourism News blog.

Abandoned Mines to Tourist Attractions?

First it was a baseball stadium a few years ago, now another St. Louis Metro-East developer wants to attract (at least) a themed hotel and indoor water park, (and possibly) a Legoland amusement park to the formerly blighted and mostly reclaimed mined lands on Marion's northwest side.

Bruce Holland of Holland Construction announced plans Saturday for a major destination retail and tourist center on the north side of Marion on hundreds of acres that include many abandoned strip mines.

The hotel he mentioned, the amusement park he didn't, though it was named as a target in a previous incarnation of this project that had been set for Glen Carbon, Illinois - the University Town Center which he pulled two days earlier due to opposition from mayors who didn't represent Glen Carbon.

Both the Southern Illinoisan and the Marion Daily Republican covered the announcement.

The presence of area mayors and politicians present other than Marion Mayor Robert Butler indicate two things, one they realize what a boost this would be for the entire region, and two, if the legislation is similar to the bill for Glen Carbon, they know towns within a 12 mile radius of the project would share in some of the sales tax increment generated.

The massive $395 million development would require the use of public Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonds to finance the development, described in the earlier version of the project as "TIF districts on steroids" - an adequate comparison.

A standard Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district uses the new property taxes generated from the development to pay for the incentives. STAR bonds use the state's sales tax increment generated, shifting the burden (to the extent that one is created) from local property-taxing governmental bodies such as school districts to state government.

There will be much to debate about the proposal in the next few days as the legislation will have to be passed by lawmakers this week. However for now, let's just consider the history of the area targeted.

Developers are focusing on 350 acres of land mostly on the east side of Interstate 57 immediately north of Morgan Avenue. It's bounded on the north by Longstreet Road and I'm assuming on the east by Russell Street. There's also a roughly 40-acre tract west of the interstate, which I assume is the undeveloped land on The Hill behind Menard's.

The Hill development on the west side by Marion Heights LLC, and this project on the east side includes the well-defined strip mine belt that highlights the southern limits of the Herrin coal seam, a highly valued stratum of coal that's about 8 feet thick on average in Williamson County.

This belt of strip mines can be seen in the map as the band of brown. The large body of water on the left side is the strip pit that still exists north of McAlister Restaurant and west of Fairfield Inn.

The reason that the band exists is that the veins of coal in Southern Illinois generally slope up to the south due to the uprising of the Shawnee Hills. Thus, this band represents the area where coal companies could mine the coal from the surface.

In order for land to be considered for either a TIF district or a STAR district (based on the existing legislation), is that it has to be blighted. Abandoned mine lands pretty much meets everyone's designation for blight.

There were underground mines on the north side of this project that began in the closing years of the 19th Century, and the strip mining began in the 1920s. More than a dozen mines operated in this area, though the exact number is unknown even to the state's Office of Mines and Minerals.

Much of the stripped out area on the west side has been reclaimed for both the "The Hill" as well as Kokopelli Golf Club. This area also includes the modern-day locations of Drury Inn, Hampton Inn, 17th Street Bar & Grill, MidCountry Bank, Rent One Park and Menard's.

Strip mining began in this area in 1922 with Southern Illinois Coal Company's strip mine about a half mile north of the Williamson County Pavilion. It operated until the Herrin Massacre in June 1922.

Strip mining began closer to the modern I-57 / Route 13 interchange in 1924 when the Pyramid Coal Company began operating Pyramid Mine No. 1 in the area of the big strip pit on the left side of the map west of the modern Fairfield Inn. Its steam shovels dug 20 to 40 feet in places to mine the 7.5 foot thick on average Herrin seam of coal. They took out 920,480 tons of coal before Coal Stripping Company took over the the mine and renamed it Coal Stripping Mine No. 1 in 1928. They mined another 511,416 tons of coal through January 1931.

Meanwhile up on The Hill itself where Rent One Park is now located and the Southern Illinois Miners play ball, the Scottsboro Coal Company's Scottsboro Mine stripped the area in 1928 and 1929 producing 372,388 tons of coal.

To the east in the general location of the Menard's store and the land to the north, the McLaren Mining Company began stripping in 1948 and 1949 on the Herrin seam which was 25 to 35 feet below the surface. Beginning in 1950 through '55 (except for 1953 and 1954 when idle), it mined the deeper Springfield seam. Overall it produced 98,613 tons of coal.

Immediately north and possibly including some of the later stripped out area was the underground Peabody Mine No. 2. The Ohio and Mississippi Valley Coal & Mining Co. started production in 1897 on its Ohio & Mississippi Valley Mine No. 2. It operated until 1900 and produced 243,343 tons before the Southern Illinois Coal Mining and Washing Company took over renaming the mine the Southern Illinois No. 2 mine which mined 639,461 tons of coal from 1900 to 1904.

Peabody Coal Company took over the mine in 1904 and operated it as Peabody No 2. mine up through May 1916 producing 1,419,571 tons. Overall, the mine in its two-decade history produced more than 2.3 million tons of coal.

Peabody No. 2 was connected underground with Peabody's No. 1 mine that was located east of the interstate just north of the modern end of Peabody Lane (a small lane running north of Morgan Avenue in between Carbon and Russell Streets). Originally, the lane was the right-of-way for the railroad spur up to the mine.

Mine No. 2 mined the coal at 78 to 84 feet below the surface. The average thickness of the Herrin vein was 7 to 9 feet. To the east at Mine No. 1, the coal was anywhere between 21 to 90 feet deep. Some of this shallower parts of the mine were later stripped mine from the surface to take out the remaining coal the original miners had left.

Mine No. 1 started about the same time as No. 2, but with a different owner. Johnston & Reed sunk the mine in 1895 and produced 75,000 tons through 1896 when it was taken over by the Ohio & Mississippi Valley Coal & Mining Co. which operated the mine from 1896 to 1900.

The Southern Illinois Coal Mining & Washing Co. took over at the turn of the century and operated the Southern Illinois Mine No. 1 in 1900 and 1901. They produced 25,900 tons. The previous owners had produced 296,711 tons. Peabody's production was likely included in the No. 2 totals.

On the east side of the interstate there were a number of small operators.

One of the underground mines was the Wilson Mine operated by H. L. Wilson from 1923 to 1926, J. W. Wilson in 1927 and W. A. Wilson in 1928 and 1929, for a total production of 8,794 tons.

Another underground mine was located on The Hill's lands on the east side of the interstate which presumably pledged for this new development was likely the Bradley & Scullin No. 1 mine which operated from 1922 to 1924, then followed by other owners lost to history before Quality Coal Company took over in 1933 and operated it until 1941. It mined the Springfield seam. Quality mined 28,176 tons of coal during their control.

There was another underground mine along Russell Street north of Morgan. The Southern Jewel Coal Company operated their Southern Jewel mine from 1935 to 1939, producing 8,329 tons.

The strip mines seemed to come later on the east side.

The Wenzel Brothers Coal Co. operated Wenzel Mine about a quarter mile north of Morgan Avenue, just north of the trailer park, in 1964 to August 1965, mining a total of 27,520 tons.

Claude White Construction Company stripped out part of the Herrin seam just 6 to 35 feet below the surface in his North Side Mine in 1969. White came later in 1977 and over the next five years mined another 41,600 tons for a total of 48,680 tons produced.

Mr. White was the father of the late G. A. White, one of the three original partners of Marion Heights LLC, the developers of The Hill.

Arrowhead Coal Company operated their Arrowhead mine in 1978 and 1989 taking out the mining pillars abandoned in earlier underground workings about 20 feet below the surface. The produced 5,307 tons.

On the eastern edge of the proposed development in Section 12 was the Polinksi Mine operated by the Polinksi Coal Company in 1947 and 1948 which produced 14,021 tons and the Hamilton Mine or Consumers No. 1 mine in the area near and south of the intersection of North Russell and Longstreet.

State mining officials aren't sure if the last two mines were separate or the same one. Consumers Coal and Materials operated Consumers No. 1 mine from 1931 to 1938 producing 59,634 tons. The Hamilton Coal Company operated the Hamilton Mine around 1932, which was listed with the same production figures.

For more on this new development, particularly the possibility of a Legoland theme park, check out the post The History of Legoland and Southern Illinois.

For more on Williamson County's mining history and maps to the actual locations of the mines mentioned above as well as a hundreds of others in the county, check out the Williamson County Coal Data page at the Illinois State Geological Survey's site.

New Charlie Birger Video

Just came across this video of "Charlie Birger Time" on YouTube. The song is apparently by a group called the "Copyrights". The video below is just some other guy.

Somehow I think it would it still please his Birger's ego to know people were still singing about him more than 80 years after his death in 1928.

Old Slave House Presentation Monday

I'll be giving a presentation on the Old Slave House tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 15, 2010, at the Marion Carnegie Library in Marion, Illinois. The program starts at 6 p.m.

The library is located on South Market Street two blocks south of the square. The event is free.