David Hammer

Did you ever wonder what you would see if you could climb into a time machine on your front lawn and take a trip back to an ancient world? Back before settlers arrived from the east? Before Native Americans came in from the west? Before glaciers slid down from the north?

I don’t own a time machine, but Palatine does have a pair of time capsules in the form of water wells. In 1969 the J. P. Miller Artesian Well Co. dug a thirteen-hundred-foot well at 550 N. Smith St. Two years later the company dug a two-thousand-foot well at 148 W. Illinois Ave. The wells supplied water to the village before the introduction of Lake Michigan water in 1986.

‘Cuttings’ that were removed from the boreholes were described on site in a ‘mud log’ or well log. The cuttings were then transported to a huge warehouse at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) in Champaign, Illinois. With geology as a guide we can read the well logs, study the cuttings and learn the story of Palatine’s ancient past.

And what a story it is! For millions of years Palatine was the site of rainforests, beaches and shallow tropical seas. Tropical because our 27-mile-thick granite crust floats on a taffy-like ocean of basalt. The whole continent once sat squarely on the equator, but has moved north over the eons.

In time grains of sand pressed together to become sandstone. Coral and seashells crushed into limestone. Debris from rainforests fell on the ground and compacted into shale and coal. The sedimentary rock beneath us can be seen today in cuttings at ISGS. Well logs can be read on their website.

Below Palatine four thousand feet of sedimentary rock lies atop a basement of smooth granite. Our trip begins then with a time machine sitting on bare rock and proceeds through hundreds of millions of years of weather: sun, wind, rain, snow and ice eroding the granite. Please be prepared as shallow seas will be washing around us, ebbing and flowing in an endless cycle.

A few chapters of our story are missing from the boreholes because glaciers destroyed the evidence. However, we can look at cuttings and corings from other wells around the region to fill in the missing pieces. The following is a brief introduction to Palatine’s ancient past:

We start our trip a half billion years ago on a hot, almost lifeless, surface of red granite. Please buckle up. Overhead masks will deploy because there is almost no oxygen in the air. Distant volcanoes belch smoke and a thin layer of slime can be seen on the rock around us, an early form of life on Earth.

Moving forward in time crustal plates climb over each other forming mountains to the east and north. As the mountains erode we notice granite boulders rolling downhill toward us. The boulders eventually break up into sand. The sand will get squeezed into sandstone.

Looking out the window our continent moves over a hotspot in the basalt which thins the crust. The crust sinks a little and a saltwater sea moves in and floods the area. Fortunately our time machine floats! Mollusks and crabs live and die by the billions leaving their shells on the seabed. Eventually the shells will become limestone deposits.

As millions of years elapse the first plants produce oxygen and usher in an explosion of animal life. Rainforest in our area teems with insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Remains of animals and plants will build up and under pressure turn rich soil into shale and coal.

Suddenly, sixty-six million years before the present, a five-mile-wide meteor strikes the Earth creating the Yucatan Peninsula. A plume of noxious fumes blocks the sun. Acid rain and cold weather kill off the dinosaurs and many other creatures. (Yes, dinosaurs probably roamed ancient Illinois!)

Just as the continent returns to its previous elevation it moves into cooler temperate regions and we see mammals standing ten feet high at the shoulder. Mastodons browse among spruce trees and mammoths graze on prairie grass. The gentle beasts are no danger to us if we leave them alone.

Soon the weather turns cold and one summer the snow from the previous winter fails to melt. Snow and ice build up and Palatine is overrun by a glacier. Growing a mile high, it slowly moves south scraping the Earth and destroying everything in its path.

The glacier finally melts and as we return to the present we are relieved to find our house surrounded by trees gently swaying in the wind. Our dog is wagging its tail and we realize that we live in a precious sliver of time within the fascinating story of Palatine’s ancient past.

Dave Hammer

Did you ever wonder what you would see if you could climb into a time machine on your front lawn and take a trip back to an ancient world? Back before settlers arrived from the east? Before Native Americans came in from the west? Before glaciers slid down from the north?

I don’t own a time machine, but Palatine does have a pair of time capsules in the form of water wells. In 1969 the J. P. Miller Artesian Well Co. dug a thirteen-hundred-foot well at 550 N. Smith St. Two years later the company dug a two-thousand-foot well at 148 W. Illinois Ave. The wells supplied water to the village before the introduction of Lake Michigan water in 1986.

‘Cuttings’ that were removed from the boreholes were described on site in a ‘mud log’ or well log. The cuttings were then transported to a huge warehouse at the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) in Champaign, Illinois. With geology as a guide we can read the well logs, study the cuttings and learn the story of Palatine’s ancient past.

And what a story it is! For millions of years Palatine was the site of rainforests, beaches and shallow tropical seas. Tropical because our 27-mile-thick granite crust floats on a taffy-like ocean of basalt. The whole continent once sat squarely on the equator, but has moved north over the eons.

In time grains of sand pressed together to become sandstone. Coral and seashells crushed into limestone. Debris from rainforests fell on the ground and compacted into shale and coal. The sedimentary rock beneath us can be seen today in cuttings at ISGS. Well logs can be read on their website.

Below Palatine four thousand feet of sedimentary rock lies atop a basement of smooth granite. Our trip begins then with a time machine sitting on bare rock and proceeds through hundreds of millions of years of weather: sun, wind, rain, snow and ice eroding the granite. Please be prepared as shallow seas will be washing around us, ebbing and flowing in an endless cycle.

A few chapters of our story are missing from the boreholes because glaciers destroyed the evidence. However, we can look at cuttings and corings from other wells around the region to fill in the missing pieces. The following is a brief introduction to Palatine’s ancient past:

We start our trip a half billion years ago on a hot, almost lifeless, surface of red granite. Please buckle up. Overhead masks will deploy because there is almost no oxygen in the air. Distant volcanoes belch smoke and a thin layer of slime can be seen on the rock around us, an early form of life on Earth.

Moving forward in time crustal plates climb over each other forming mountains to the east and north. As the mountains erode we notice granite boulders rolling downhill toward us. The boulders eventually break up into sand. The sand will get squeezed into sandstone.

Looking out the window our continent moves over a hotspot in the basalt which thins the crust. The crust sinks a little and a saltwater sea moves in and floods the area. Fortunately our time machine floats! Mollusks and crabs live and die by the billions leaving their shells on the seabed. Eventually the shells will become limestone deposits.

As millions of years elapse the first plants produce oxygen and usher in an explosion of animal life. Rainforest in our area teems with insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Remains of animals and plants will build up and under pressure turn rich soil into shale and coal.

Suddenly, sixty-six million years before the present, a five-mile-wide meteor strikes the Earth creating the Yucatan Peninsula. A plume of noxious fumes blocks the sun. Acid rain and cold weather kill off the dinosaurs and many other creatures. (Yes, dinosaurs probably roamed ancient Illinois!)

Just as the continent returns to its previous elevation it moves into cooler temperate regions and we see mammals standing ten feet high at the shoulder. Mastodons browse among spruce trees and mammoths graze on prairie grass. The gentle beasts are no danger to us if we leave them alone.

Soon the weather turns cold and one summer the snow from the previous winter fails to melt. Snow and ice build up and Palatine is overrun by a glacier. Growing a mile high, it slowly moves south scraping the Earth and destroying everything in its path.

The glacier finally melts and as we return to the present we are relieved to find our house surrounded by trees gently swaying in the wind. Our dog is wagging its tail and we realize that we live in a precious sliver of time within the fascinating story of Palatine’s ancient past.

Dave Hammer

 

The worst Chicago & Northwestern freight train wreck in 50 years occurred Thursday, November 9, 1950. The aftermath above was captured on film by a local businessman. Twenty freight cars piled up in downtown Palatine. A total of 57 cars were smashed up or derailed. There were no casualties, but if a northbound passenger train had been on time, or if five gasoline tank cars had been full, the results would have been catastrophic. A steel beam from a gondola was driven into the ground about 18 feet. The National Guard and Red Cross rushed to the scene. Police had difficulty keeping curiosity-seekers out of harm’s way. A full description of the disaster is available on microfilm from the Palatine Enterprise issue of November 17, 1950. To see the video paste the following into YouTube’s address bar: f0dLNT5HSHo.

The Victorians had superstitious beliefs about the dead. When someone died in a home, the clocks were stopped at the time of death or you would have bad luck. Mirrors were covered so that you could not look in and see the soul of the dead person. Black ribbons were put on outside doors to let people know the family was mourning and they should not be bothered by visitors. People who lived on busy city streets often put straw on the street in front of the house to dull the sound of horses’ feet. Cabinet makers were hired to build a proper sized wooden coffin. In Palatine, Carl Danielsen was the cabinet maker who did that job. His son, Frank, became Palatine’s first mortician with a license. Wakes were held in the home, in the parlor. Wreaths and crosses of flowers were sent to the home. Ads were placed in the newspaper so people would know when to come and pay respects to the family and when/where the funeral would be held as is still done today. Men whose close relatives died wore black armbands for at least three months. Women, of course, had more severe restrictions. They were socially required to wear black mourning clothes from six months to a year for close relatives. Wives had to wear mourning clothes for two or three years. The first year was full mourning, that is dull black cloth, often crape, with no other color; no shiny cloth or jewelry. Jet was a common mourning jewelry made of a soft black rock or gutta percha. The exception here was memorial jewelry that held cuttings of the dead person’s hair. Also included were black shoes & stockings, black gloves, black purses, black fans and black aprons. Some even wore black undergarments or at least black ribbon in their old white ones. After a year, shiny black cloth could be worn with white trims like cuffs and collars. French jet jewelry was appropriate; that is black glass. The third year, not usually followed in rural areas, was a switch to gray or lavender colors. A man could remarry after three months. Not a widow; she must wait a full year before marrying and should never wear white. A woman must quickly get black clothes before the wake so these were the first ready made things sold in stores  If you could not afford to buy new clothes you dyed the ones you had black.Queen Victoria’s lifelong mourning of Prince Albert and America’s Civil War brought all of these customs fully blown to all classes of people.