Lake County forest preserve debate long lived

The local paper billed it as the biggest proposition to reach voters in years, but warned readers that fixing Lake County roads was more important than protecting land for the public use.

That was 89 years ago.

As Lake County Forest Preserve District officials seek permission in November to take out a $185 million tax-backed loan to add to its 26,500-acre holdings, it's romantic to consider the origin of the land preservation movement as an easy sell.

Surely, early open space advocates had no problem convincing the masses that creating a taxing body to acquire and preserve land was in their best interest.

However, that now-established movement wasn't popular here in 1919. The first try at seeking voter approval for the Lake County Forest Preserve District was soundly trounced at the ballot box.

Decades passed before the idea resurfaced. Though ultimately successful, the direction and image of the forest preserve district over the past 50 years has shifted with the times and politicians in charge.

Today, roads and land preservation remain top issues, commanding expenditures of tens of millions of dollars every year. Starting 2008 with a $42 million purchase - the single largest in its 50-year history - the district is at its acquisition peak.

But as the yearlong birthday celebration continues, its genesis is largely forgotten.

According to research compiled for the Lake County Discovery Museum, a movement to create a forest preserve district patterned after those in Cook and DuPage counties began in late 1918, when Highland Park author and attorney Everett L. Millard approached the county board of supervisors.

Millard's vision was to preserve several areas, including flats north of Waukegan, the Des Plaines River valley, Grass Lake and its lotus beds and the Fox River area in the southeast part of the county.

To do that, the district would be authorized to tax, with the original levy estimated to produce about $25,000 a year and a bonding authority of $250,000.

A committee was formed, with Millard as chairman. Steel magnate Edward L. Ryerson, whose namesake conservation area near Deerfield is a popular attraction today, headed the finance committee. An emotional debate ensued.

Some argued against creating a playground for Chicago area residents, saying the dollars they might bring to Lake County would not offset the cost. Was every piece of land a potential target? Would taxes be raised unchecked? What about other expenses, such as building roads in the preserves and hiring policemen to patrol them?

Millard said the comparison to Cook County showed preserves were used where such a system existed and would benefit Lake County citizens, not wealthy Chicagoans.

For an investment of $1 per year, residents would get thousands of acres of land in return, he argued. Other than providing public access and trails, little else need be done, he added, keeping costs low.

Waukegan city leaders were split. One commissioner said a forest preserve district would be a waste of money for land that would sit unused by the public for 50 years.

Ultimately, Waukegan supported the idea. The success of Cook and DuPage counties was cited and the desire to preserve forest, river and lake areas here should be pursued before the land became too expensive.

Signatures were presented to put the proposition on the ballot.

The day before the election, the Waukegan Daily Sun came out against the measure, saying the new district would have much power, and residents shouldn't complain if taxes went up. Road repairs, a new courthouse and a countywide orphanage were more important, the paper said.

The committee responded with a full-page ad, saying the county board would double as forest preserve commissioners with no extra pay. Land prices would only increase, and any parcel that could be acquired would be important to future generations.

On Nov. 4, 1919, voters thumped the idea with 4,615 against and 2,184 in favor. Most of the support came from voters in Highland Park and Shields Township.

Nearly 40 years passed before Ethel Untermyer, a young housewife with three small kids, rekindled the effort.

She had lived in what is now Riverwoods for a few years before learning as many as 40 homes could be built on neighboring property.

That possibility was in the back of her mind when her son, Frank Irwin, had a request.

"He wanted to explore," said Untermyer, now in her early 80s and living in the same home. "The Des Plaines River is right over on Deerfield Road, but all of that was privately held."

As a child, Untermyer had lived in a home in a Cook County Forest Preserve. Growing up in Chicago, she was used to the public spaces nearby. That wasn't the case in Lake County.

"I just assumed there was a forest preserve," she said.

Fearing development near her home and wanting to provide a place for her son, Untermyer felt a need to do something.

"I typed up a petition on my little IBM typewriter and circulated it throughout the county," she said. "I got in my little Studebaker and headed around. We were undaunted."

Crisscrossing the county, she has been credited as the force behind the formation of the Lake County Forest Preserve District, which was approved by 60 percent of the votes cast on Nov. 4, 1958. Ethel's Woods forest preserve on Route 45 near Antioch is named in her honor.

Another item on that ballot, to approve a $2.5 million bond issue for court house expansion did not pass. Untermyer believes that defeat hindered early forest preserve efforts.

"What happened, and this is very unfortunate, the county board at the time was so angry that they lost the courthouse that they refused to buy an inch of land," she said.

The first purchase, dedicated in late 1961, was 162 acres near Wadsworth, named after David Van Patten, the forest preserve district president in 1960.

By 1968, Van Patten and Wright Woods, near Lincolnshire, were the only two forest preserves, both operating basically as picnic groves.

At that time, a country estate called Lakewood Farms near Wauconda was in receivership and the forest preserve district acquired 1,054 acres in a negotiated purchase.

"It was an opportunity," said Jerry Soesbe, who wrote the grant application for the purchase and was hired in 1968 as the district's first director. "Back then, we didn't have the larger scale developments and developers who could buy 1,000 acres and move fast."

Lakewood figuratively had put the district on the map. But there was constant tension between those who wanted to save land and those who felt it was Lake County's time to grow and develop.

And the district could be heavy handed with its acquisitions, using condemnation to secure property. By 1991, pro-development forces overthrew the open space majority and Soesbe was fired.

The pendulum again has swung. Today, the district has used up its available cash for acquisitions and wants to replenish the supply. In a buyer's market, district officials say, there is a chance to make significant purchases because of lower land prices and favorable interest rates.

And how does Untermyer gauge the success of the past 50 years?

"I'm happy with what I see," she said, "but I'd be happier if I saw more."