The Illinois Heroes of 9-11-01

This weekend, we've honored the heroes of 9-11 — some of whom died that day, and some of whom are still alive.

All, of course, will live on in our memories.

First responders and emergency personnel from across the country traveled to New York City and Washington, DC in the wake of the attacks to help with the recovery efforts.  Many of those men and women came from Illinois.

One of those Illinois heroes was John Callahan, the Coroner here in my home of Grundy County, IL.  John was a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team who headed out to New York City to aid in the cleanup at the World Trade Center site.

Please read this recent Morris Daily Herald story that details the grim job that faced John when he arrived in New York City, and why his work was so very important.

Oh, how far you've come, Motorola.

I used my Motorola Droid X smartphone to snap this photo of an antique Motorola phone on display at the Grundy County Historical Society Museum.

History in Our Backyard

Sorry to break up the "Route 66" series with this post, but I just wanted to make a few observations as they relate to the theme and purpose of this blog.

Those of us who grew up in Illinois probably learned a little bit about Illinois history in elementary school or junior high — especially as that history relates to Abraham Lincoln (certainly most schools wouldn't dare teach us about the Illinois life of a conservative president like Ronald Reagan ... but I digress...)

Many of us (myself included), however, don't realize much more about the rich history that lies in our backyards. That's exactly the history I want to explore in this blog. Forget the big museums and the tourist trips. I want to look at the roads less traveled. The more obscure sites that really tell the story of Illinois' history.

For example, the town I live in — Morris — was built by those working on the historic Illinois & Michigan Canal. I happened upon a book about our county's history — and learned about a number of fascinating anecdotes and historic sites here in my backyard that I absolutely have to investigate. Those stories will be told here.

Just this past week, I learned about our neighboring town of Seneca, and it's connection to helping us win World War II. As it turns out, during World War II, Seneca — which is now small rural town of about 2,000 residents — housed 27,000 workers who worked at the "Prairie LST Shipyard" constructing Landing Ship, Tanks for our Navy. There's a blog post coming on that history.

And much, much more. If you have any suggestions of other off-the-beaten-path historical sites we should visit, please let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy our blog.