Heading down Route 72 in West Dundee, drivers pass a small bronze sign that rises about five feet above the ground. It marks the site where one of the town's most prominent historical figures lived.

Allan Pinkerton, Dundee's first cooper, had a shop on the corner before he became a detective known across the country as the sleuth who put an end to a plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln.

Despite Pinkerton's influence, local historians fear it's likely the historical plot marking his claim to fame often goes unnoticed by passers-by.

Residents living in nearby towns might pass the sign several times a week in their daily commutes to work, the store or to drop their children off at school. But the Pinkerton marker, as well as three others that dot the landscape of the northern Fox Valley, hold hidden treasures for those who take the time to stop and look.

"In terms of local history, I think sometimes the locals take for granted their past and how significant it is to the development of their own community," said Harry Klinkhamer, programs assistant for the Illinois State Historical Society.

"It just so easily happens that you'll skip by something of historical significance because it's always been there or you decide: 'Some day I will take a look at it.'æ"

But that day never comes for many residents, Klinkhamer said - and, ultimately, tourists often end up knowing more about a town's history than its residents.

Indeed, the Illinois State Historical Society established the system for erecting State Historical Site highway markers in the early 1930s as a tool for tourism, Klinkhamer said.

Local historians say residents who venture off the beaten path to the area's markers would be rewarded by learning a bit of history concerning Allan Pinkerton, the Elgin Watch Company, the famed evangelist Billy Sunday's farm and other historical sites.

Pinkerton, a Scotsman, arrived in Dundee in 1843 and was the town's first - and, for a long time, its only - cask and barrel maker, according to the Dundee Township Historical Society. He became the leader of the abolitionists who dominated the town, and, after finding a stash of counterfeit money while seeking wood for his casks, Pinkerton ventured into law enforcement.

The Geneva sheriff appointed Pinkerton a deputy, and Pinkerton captured the lawless gang that tried to claim its "loot." He later organized the United States Secret Service and founded the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

"From what I've read about (Pinkerton), he's a very interesting character, and I think 'character' is a key word," said Marge Edwards, president of the Dundee society. "People are usually surprised if they know about him to learn that he actually lived here in Dundee."

The marker indicating Pinkerton's birth place is visible to passing drivers, but Edwards questioned how many stop to look at it.

"I think most people in Dundee know that it's there, but I think it's kind of like when you live in New York and you never see the Empire State Building," Edwards said. "It's always there, so you don't have to think about it."

Residents might have similar attitudes regarding the marker for the evangelist Sunday's farm, she said. Erected in the early 1970s, the marker sits on Route 72 at Sleepy Hollow Road.

It indicates the area where William Ashley "Billy" Sunday held a monthlong religious revival from May to June 1900.

Billy Sunday owned the farm with his wife Helen "Ma" Sunday from the end of the 19th century to the mid-1910s, historians say. He was a baseball outfielder for Chicago until he became a born-again Christian and later a preacher in 1896. He was popular for a time for his sensationalist "fire and brimstone" preaching.

"He traveled around and held revival meetings in a tent, and he had a meeting at Tower Park in Dundee," Edwards said, "but the farm belonged to his wife's family."

The Sunday farm and the Pinkerton home are listed as sites to see on another historical marker on the southwest corner of Route 67 and O'Brien-VanderKaw Road in McHenry County near Hebron.

The "Welcome to Illinois" marker is like several others across the state that list significant historical points of interest in the region, Klinkhamer said.

"We're just trying to preserve various aspects of Illinois history, from Abraham Lincoln and the Douglas debates to early settlement in Illinois," he asserted. "Oftentimes, the marker will say: 'This is what happened here, and this is what it went on to effect."

In addition to mentioning Pinkerton and Sunday, the Welcome to Illinois marker outlines the importance of dairy farming for the region, hunting and the distinction of Elgin's watch factory, which has its own sign.

The Elgin National Watch Company historical marker was placed at the corner of National Street and Grove Avenue, now in Clocktower Plaza, in 1989, Klinkhamer said. It outlines the history of the company that was a leader in the watch industry in the 1920s.

The National Watch Company was completed in 1867. It brought to Elgin skilled workers from the East who helped build the town after the outgrew the boarding house they lived in upon their arrival.

After the National Watch Company put more than 125,000 watches on the market by 1872, people across the country began asking for watches made in Elgin, putting the small town on the map and making it a factory town.

"The company grew and grew through the years, and, of course, eventually it was the main employer for the area," said George Albee of the Elgin Historical Society.

The company employed almost 4,500 people in its heyday. The employees - many of them Easterners - influenced the area's values and religion.

"It was like Elgin was the watch company and the dairy industry, too," Albee said. "But Elgin might have been a very different place if it weren't for the watch company."

A recession in 1957 spelled the beginning of the end for the company, which suffered a slow death by a wrecking crew that started in 1966. The company's marker shows its influence should not be forgotten, historians said.

"The past connects with the present, and the present connects with the future - so you just can't forget about the past," Edwards said. "Some of it has to be saved."

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