Before automobiles shrank miles into minutes, before subdivisions sprouted like mushrooms following a rain, the settlers of DuPage and Kane counties struggled to dig roots into the tough prairie soil of the American frontier.

Modern conveniences, highways and strip malls have transformed the landscape in ways the original settlers could never have imagined, but remnants of that earlier time lie hidden in unlikely places, sometimes marked by no more than a simple plaque.

This list of historic sites in DuPage and central Kane counties is by no means exhaustive, but these represent an important cross-section of Illinois history.

Garfield Farm Museum: Just five miles west of Geneva in unincorporated Kane County, at Route 38 and Garfield Road, this 240-acre farm represents a critical link between traditional farming and modern agribusiness.

"It represents all those prairie farms that were here in this part of Illinois that through the great production of wheat that was then hauled to Chicago and then shipped out to New York," said Jerome Johnson, executive museum director. "It made Chicago just mushroom."

A fading historical marker on Route 38 signals the farm. From the road, the site doesn't look like much.

"If you just drive by it, it looks like some old barns that need some help," Johnson said.

But visitors to the site find a working farm museum with the original buildings from the 1840s, artifacts, letters, diaries, photographs and even some original prairie grass that never was plowed.

Stacy's Tavern: Another link in the developing economy of Illinois, the farmstead of Moses Stacy, was one day's journey from Chicago or from Rockford. Seeing the large number of wagons making the trip, Stacy built a tavern at what is today Geneva and Main streets in Glen Ellyn with a large dining room, a parlor for the ladies, a tap room for the men, two large bedrooms - one for men and one for women - and one small bedroom.

"He figured he could make some money, which he did," said Bob Chambers, a Glen Ellyn historian.

For 50 cents, visitors got supper, a bed, breakfast and feed for their horses.

The inn went out of business in the 1850s after the railroad drew business south to what is today downtown Glen Ellyn.

A historical marker tells some of the story and the house has been converted into a museum, where docents in period costume tell the rest.

Fort Payne: Before farmers crossed the prairie bringing grain to market, early settlers dug in, fearful of attack by hostile Indians. Fort Payne was built to protect the Naper Settlement during the Black Hawk War of 1832.

As it turned out, the Naper settlement never came under attack during the battles between the Sauk Indians , the state militia and federal troops.

"The actual building of Fort Payne, more so than a lot of other forts, was unnecessary, but it did provide people with a lot of comfort," said Sue Bucksath, education manager at the Naper Settlement, a re-creation of the settlement and the fort a few blocks from the original site near downtown Naperville.

Manned by militia volunteers, the fort wasn't the center of settlement life.

"People are under the impression that people lived inside the walls like some sort of feudal kingdom," Bucksath said. "But, no, people lived outside the walls and it was just there in case of attack."

The fort no longer stands, but a historic marker oat North Central College marks the original site.

Army Trail Road: Another remnant of the Black Hawk War is the road that stretches across DuPage County from Addison to Wayne.

The name of Army Trail Road commemorates the journey of federal troops under Gen. Winfield Scott as they marched west from Fort Dearborn to fight the Sauk in 1832, though the actual troops took a variety of routes.

The road follows the route of an old Indian trail.

A state historical marker on the northeast corner of Army Trail Road and Kennedy Drive in Addison marks the start of the historic trail.

God's Little Acre Cemetery: Pvt. William Bennett, a Revolutionary War veteran, arrived in Kane County in 1836 with his wife, Sally, and her children from a previous marriage, the Wards. He was buried in this half-acre plot in 1846. Four members of the family are buried there also.

Located on a wooded knoll, the cemetery is separated from the Corron Glen subdivision west of St. Charles by a black metal fence and marked by a county historical marker on Col. Bennett Lane.

Apparently developers felt the old soldier deserved a promotion.

Graue Mill: This grist mill by the Salt Creek in present-day Oak Brook was built by German immigrant Frederick Graue in 1852. It helped make Fullersburg an important commercial center, but like so many other sites it declined when the railroad was built through present-day Hinsdale to the south.

Graue was an abolitionist and his mill was a stop on the Underground Railroad. He sheltered runaway slaves in his basement as they made the dangerous trip to freedom.

Modern milling techniques made the Graue Mill obsolete at the turn of the century, but in the 1950s it was restored as a museum, run by a not-for-profit organization that leases the property from the DuPage County Forest Preserve District.

Today, it is the only operating water-wheel grist mill in Illinois and a national historic landmark.

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