For as long as anyone remembers - and even before - Black Hawk State
Historic Site has held a unique place in our regional history. Its location
at the crest of the cliff overlooking the Rock River valley and the
confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers was the center of the Sauk and
Mesquakie Indians' territory around 1800. By 1832, our Indian predecessors
were completely ejected by both deception and force, and settlers of
European descent took over their lands.
Even those early settlers recognized the special quality and beauty of this
place. In 1882, Bailey Davenport formalized that attraction by making it a
destination for his street railway. He developed the land as an amusement
park and called it the Watch Tower Park. We will tell you more about the
amusement park at another time, with another postcard.
With the park came the need for shelter. Initially there was a large open
pavilion, usable only during warm weather. In 1892, the first year-round
building, called an inn, was built. It looked like a towered Queen Anne
house surrounded by two levels of porches and held a dining room, cafe, ice
cream parlor and ballroom. Unfortunately, it burned only four years later.
The second inn fared a bit better. It was Colonial Revival in style with
even larger encircling porches, but it too burned, in 1916. The third inn
was a Classical Revival building, with a two-story portico overlooking the
river and two levels of open porches all around.
As the amusement park patronage declined in the 1920s, there was concern for
the future of this historic site. Prominent local resident and
philanthropist John Hauberg led the campaign to designate it as a state
park. Seventy-five years ago, in 1927, his goal was achieved. The 208
acres surrounding the old Watch Tower was changed to Black Hawk State Park,
in honor of its most prominent resident (whom we had previously banished
from this place). The amusement park rides and concessions were quickly
demolished, but the third inn remained until 1936, when it was replaced with
yet another building, the one on today's postcard.
In the midst of the 1930s, the entire country was in an economic recession.
As part of President Roosevelt's "New Deal," the Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) was established to create work and a modest income for the unemployed.
In 1933, the CCC arrived at Black Hawk Park. In exchange for room and board
and a few dollars a month, the two hundred men who lived in a camp here,
built much of the rustic lodge and created the landscape we see today.
The lodge was designed by state architect Joseph Booton, who also designed
the CCC-built lodges at Starved Rock, Pere Marquette, and Giant City State
Parks. It was built in stages - wings to the east and west were constructed
first, around the existing inn. Then the old inn was demolished so the room
shown on the postcard could complete the structure. The postcard, published
in 1942, shows the main lounge - sometimes called the dining room - of our
lodge. Nearly all its surfaces - walls, floors, and ceilings are wood.
The large windows and doors to the right of our picture lead to a balcony
overlooking the woods to the north - perhaps commemorating those earlier
porches on the inns. The portrait hanging on that wall looks like John
Hauberg, an appropriate honor for the man who was instrumental in
establishment of the park and who later donated most of the artifacts in the
adjacent museum.
The postcard view, which looks toward the west end of the lounge, shows one
of the native limestone fireplaces and oil-on-canvas murals. The opposite
east end of the room has a similar fireplace and mural. The murals are the
work of Otto Hake, an artist for the Work Progress Administration (another
Roosevelt New Deal program). Hake, who studied at the Art Institute of
Chicago, was a well-known muralist, especially in the Chicago area.
According to a WPA murals website, Hake was not identified as the artist for
many years, possibly because the outer perimeters of these murals, which
were intended for a different building, were trimmed to fit here. The mural
we see on the postcard is named "Chief Black Hawk - Winter Round House" and
is 18' x 8'6". The other mural is entitled "Sauk and Fox Indians - Summer
Long House" and is 15' x 18'6".
Partially blocking our view of the mural in the postcard is one of the
massive peeled logs used to support the roof trusses. The trusses are made
of squared off timbers interlaced in a complex design with iron straps
anchoring them firmly to their peeled log support. While the engineering
design may be complicated, it's easy to visualize how the truss support
system works. Visit the lodge and look at one of the trusses. Then imagine
one piece missing. How would the adjacent pieces tend to move? The
analysis can be fun for kids, too.
The park was made a state historic site in 1987 with the Illinois Historic
Preservation Agency as the administrator. Although extensive renovations,
including a replication of the original tile roof, have recently begun, the
lodge and two museums - the John Hauberg Indian Museum and the CCC
museum -- remain open to the public during construction.
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