Officials of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie near Wilmington, Illinois, are gradually removing storage bunkers that once were a part of the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in favor of restoring the original prairie.
The fascinating article in The Herald-News illustrates how preservation or restoration can come in direct conflict with another era of history in the same site.
Midewin’s prairie-restoration efforts in the past 20 years remain well-known, including the re-introduction of native bison to the preserve in 2015.
But Midewin also used to be part of Blodgett Road, a dirt path farmers used to drive hogs to the market. Farms also dotted the area, although little but their foundations remain. There is Highway 53, also known as Route 66.
Then there was the arsenal, which was used to build ammunition for World War II. The newspaper reports:
Some of the more recent history is being destroyed to make room for the deeper past. […]
About 300 old ammunition storage igloos still remain, even after 59 have been removed. The storage igloos commonly are called bunkers, but officially are called igloos by the U.S. Army. The area still has more than 50 other buildings, including old load and assembly plants.
The concrete storage bunkers shaped like igloos were built to store TNT and are made of thick concrete walls.
Most eventually will be removed as part of the prairie restoration project. […]
Taking them down takes time. Only 17 were demolished in the past year.
An official said although most of the so-called “igloos” will be removed, a few will be kept near the Iron Bridge Trailhead that will be part of the “Circle of Time” walk that also traverses the farm ruins and the bison grazing area.
Midewin also is preserving some found ammunition-plant artifacts and has encouraged former plant employees to tell their stories. Many of them, however, remain reluctant to talk because of the “loose lips sink ships” secrecy of the era.
Former plant employees may be stoic for another reason. An explosion on the assembly line in 1942 left 48 people dead or missing. The blast was felt as far away as Waukegan, Illinois — more than 70 miles.
Looking over the history of tallgrass prairie in Illinois, it’s not hard to figure out why Midewin officials made preservation of it a higher priority. About 200 years ago, Illinois contained more than 21 million acres of tallgrass prairie. Today, just 0.01 percent of that remains.
The creation of Midewin offers a rare opportunity to regain some of what has been lost, and on a scale that can make a significant difference to the survival of threatened and endangered prairie species. […]
Midewin supports populations of 27 Regional Forester Sensitive Species, including 1 species on the Federal list of endangered species and 19 species on the State threatened, endangered, or watch lists; including the loggerhead shrike. It also harbors Illinois’s largest breeding population of endangered upland sandpipers.
(Image of inside one of the igloos at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie near Wilmington, Illinois, by I Bird 2 via Flickr)
Yes, this is interesting indeed about the Tallgrass Prairie project and the bisons. Keeping a few of those bunkers intact and opening up each side wall would be useful for the bisons to have easy access refuge during periods of inclement weather. Those old empty wooden wartime ammunition boxes are quite valuable to collectors. Hope that they are used to help raise needed funds to complete the Tallgrass Prairie project.
Since when is a semi-circular tunnel shaped concrete building an “igloo”? If the purists want to go back to some particular period in time, why not go back to before Caucasians started destroying/changing what they found when first “colonising” the Americas for themselves?
But, what about the bison, sir? They were here before the purists, caucasians AND the ammunition igloos. 😉
Not a well known fact: Bison lived in igloos.
That’s not a fact at all.
Of course the bison lived in igloos – or they would have had ison their Bs……..
How about regenerating the dinosaurs? Or whatever preceded them? There is nothing so special about any period in time that we have to go back to it. Not even to before 1492.
“Seems” like they are striking a good balance. Save a few for historical purposes…I don’t need to tour 300 of them. Give me a map of the area showing how many there were, and how and when they were used.
Is it worth pouring millions into removing them? That’s another topic.