Trails and tribulations with the Forest Preserve District of Kane County

It was one of those ideas that was obvious as soon as it was offered.

No one seemed to know what to do with thousands of miles of railroad tracks that were abandoned in favor of highways after World War II. The obvious solution came in the early 1960s, and the Forest Preserve District of Kane County was among the first to take advantage of it.

May Theilgaard Watts, a Morten Arboretum Naturalist, had the radically obvious idea. What if these rails could be turned into trails? “If we have courage and foresight,” Watts wrote in an editorial for the Chicago Tribune in 1963, “then we can create from this strip a proud resource.” She regaled readers with what the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Electric (CA&E) rail line could be, if converted to a multi-use trail:

“The path lies ahead, curving around a hawthorn tree, then proceeding under the shade of a forest of sugar maple trees, dripping into a thicket of wild plum, to straighten out for a long stretch of prairie, tall grass prairie, with Big Bluestem and Blazing Star and Silphium and Goldenrod.”

In 1966, Watts and some of her supporters helped DuPage County acquire 27 miles of the former CA&E and establish the Illinois Prairie Path as one of the first “rails to trails” conversions. The trail extended into Kane County in 1972.

One of the many people inspired by Watts was a Batavia small business owner with a hefty mustache and a hearty laugh: Phil Elfstrom. During his over 20 years in elected office as Kane County Board chairman from 1971 to 1982 and president of the Forest Preserve District of Kane County from 1983 to 1990, Elfstrom led the acquisition and development of about 80 miles of biking and hiking trails, most from abandoned rail lines. Some knew him as “a political powerhouse who knew how to get things done” while others believed he had a “callous disregard for a community you are elected to serve.”

No one can dispute, however, that Elfstrom championed many new recreational options in Kane County including trails, golf, and minor league baseball. These new recreation opportunities were not welcomed by everyone, however, leading to a political firestorm that reached all the way to the governor’s office.

The District began to assemble an impressive 80 miles of its own public trails beginning in 1977 and the acquisition of the Great Western Railroad from the LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles to Sycamore. Paul Clusen, a commissioner of the District at the time, remembered the opening of the trail in May of 1980 as a significant turning point in the history of the District. “The thing that really shook things up was when the Great Western Railroad was abandoned and [Commissioner] Phil Elfstrom decided they ought to buy that for a bike trail… And it really made the Forest Preserve a lot different after that, I think.”

Adding trails to Kane County was not the only “thing that shook things up.” A zealous baseball fan, Elfstrom was determined to bring professional baseball to Kane County. The idea was unprecedented. No minor league baseball team at the time was located within the same media market as a major league team. Kane County would be within the same market as two!

To attract a team, the District needed a stadium. The first location considered was directly west of the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, which the city vigorously opposed. Undeterred, Elfstrom turned to Geneva’s Settler’s Hill Landfill, securing over $2 million from Waste Management and $1.2 million in zero-interest bonds held by the Kane County Enterprise Fund, which collected landfill user fees, to build the stadium at the former landfill. According to Elfstrom, the stadium was built “without going to taxpayer support.” The public/private partnership became an example of how a former landfill can be converted to a new use.

The stadium broke ground in November of 1989, and the Class A ball club from Wausau, Wisconsin began its first season as the Kane County Cougars on April 13, 1991. A decade later, the Cougars broke the Class A record for season attendance with over half of a million fans.

Meanwhile, the District continued acquiring land for public trails. By the late 1980s, one could nearly traverse the length of Kane County, along the fabulous Fox River, from Algonquin to Aurora. It was not always possible to use former rail lines to complete the Fox River Trail, however. To complete one section in St. Charles, the District’s commissioners in January of 1989 voted unanimously to buy about one acre each from 26 riverfront homeowners on the west bank of the Fox River.

The owners did not want to sell a narrow strip of their backyards. Because of the eminent domain clause in the Downstate Forest Preserve Act, the District could force them to sell at the appraised value by arguing their land was needed for public use. The St. Charles property owners protested and in April of 1989 the District’s commissioners withdrew their offer. Later that summer, a law limiting the District’s use of eminent domain was signed by Illinois Governor James Thompson.

Elfstrom’s vision to increase the recreation offerings of the District was bold in the view of some, reckless in the view of others. The results, however, are undeniable. Today, thousands of residents and tourists enjoy biking, walking, and running the Illinois Prairie Path, Great Western Trail, Virgil-Gilman Trail, and Fox River Trail. Families can cheer professional baseball without trekking to the north or south side of Chicago. Public golf is enjoyed where there once was a landfill. Whether he was someone “who knew how to get things done” or had a “callous disregard for a community,” Elfstrom, in the words of former commissioner Paul Clausen, “made the Forest Preserve a lot different.”