While no one knows the definite origins of Half Day, some say it named was after the Potawatomi Chief Aptakisic, whose moniker means "half day."

Others say the village was dubbed for being a half day's journey from Chicago - by horseback - in 1836.

One fact is clear: the community, like other tiny hamlets in Lake County, was swallowed up by a larger town.

The village of Vernon Hills annexed Half Day in December 1996, following a lengthy legal battle with Lincolnshire, which also wanted the hamlet.

The disappearance of historic communities such as Half Day, Lamb's Corner and Gas Ball may leaves pangs of sentimentality with longtime area residents.

Bob Mosteller, deputy director of planning for Lake County, pointed out that it doesn't change anything but the jurisdiction.

"I think the biggest thing to cause these places to disappear is the demise of the one-room school house," he said.

Struggling to keep up with the explosive growth in Lake County, more and more towns are snatching up these little places.

The overall melding of rural, historic communities into the larger, incorporated towns inevitably results in some lost history, said Diana Dretske, collections coordinator for the Lake County Museum and author of "What's in a Name? The Origin of Place Names in Lake County, Illinois."

"From my point of view, this does present a problem," Dretske said. "So many communities are so focused on expansion that they are not thinking preservation. Most Native American sites are gone."

And historic stories get blurred.

Rondout, for instance, was the site of a famous 1924 train robbery called the "greatest crime of the century." Most of it has been annexed by the village of Green Oaks.

Another place that has faded away is Lamb's Corner.

Massachusetts native Joseph Lamb became one of the first settlers to Warren Township when he founded Lamb's Corner in 1839.

Located at the intersection of what is now Hunt Club Road and Route 132, Lamb's Corner was a vital place when the post office and Black Smith shop were located there.

The Lamb family owned the property until 1991 when it sold to the Gurnee Mills Corp.

"You go out to that area now, and you feel like you're on a different planet," Dretske said.

Gas Ball, located at the intersection of Big Hollow and Wilson roads in Grant Township, is still identified on some maps.

Named for a huge natural gas storage tank that stood at the southeast corner of the intersection, Gas Ball was used as a landmark for people coming out from Chicago to the Lake County resorts at the beginning of the century, according to Dretske.

Not many people claimed being a resident of Gas Ball, however, Mosteller said.

For other small communities, people fiercely hold onto their identities even as they are in the process of melding into the incorporated towns.

For many, it's just a matter of time before that happens.

Ivanhoe, for instance, is not far from the snatches of Mundelein.

"That way it is laid out, I think Mundelein will eventually overcome it," Dretske said.

Other communities, such as Diamond Lake, Gages Lake, Ivanhoe, Wildwood and Wedge's Corner, never were villages but are very much places in their own right.

In some cases, they've held a place on the map for more than 100 years. Many people still refer to the places by their original names, even when they get folded into a larger, incorporated town.

Half Day Road and the Half Day Inn, for instance, are reminders of the community that boasts building the first post office and the first school in Lake County.

"I still think of it as Half Day, but the perception will fade away over time," Mosteller said.

However, residents of at least a couple of Lake County communities decided to preserve their historic places.

Residents in Volo in the northern part of Wauconda Township rallied together and recently incorporated, Mosteller said.

Beach Park took the same steps about 10 years ago.

The majority of the remaining historic communities located in unincorporated Lake County most likely will become folded in to existing towns in the coming years, Mosteller said.

"As new residents move in and more subdivisions sprout up, Mosteller predicts, the disappearing historic places "will just fade from everyone's memory."

Dretske echoed his prediction.

"I think whoever is there now will get bigger," she said.

"The race is on now to the incorporated. It's almost like there are no more buffers anymore because there is such a race for land."

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