Rich, rockless soil brought settlers to Lake County

Rocky soil is the bane of farmers, and word of "less rocky" soil drew many settlers to Lake County.

Justus Bangs traveled from Vermont to settle in Wauconda in 1836. He wrote in his diary: "I wanted to know if there was any better country in the west than the rocky hills of Vermont." While the soils of Vermont and other eastern states were filled with enough field stone to build fences and houses, the settlers quickly learned that Lake County's rocks were not of the field stone variety. The soil of Lake County was dark and mostly clear of debris, except for some rather large glacial souvenirs.

Ten thousand years ago, Lake County was covered in ice a quarter-mile thick. The ice was part of the Laurentide glacier which spread over five million square miles from northern Canada across the upper Midwestern states. When the glacier melted and retreated it left interesting marks on the land, including sand and gravel deposits, ravines, kettle lakes such as Round Lake, Gages Lake and Third Lake, and the Des Plaines River Valley.

The glacier also left behind rocks, which included large boulders. Kuhn's Rock near Wadsworth was a parting gift of the glacier, and is thought to be the largest gray granite rock in the state of Illinois. It sat so prominently on the landscape that it was used as a landmark, most significantly in the mid-1800s on the Underground Railroad.

The "railroad" was a network of people who helped runaway slaves find freedom in northern states and Canada. Since these illegal activities had to be kept secret, there were no maps to guide escaped slaves, only the stars in the night sky, landmarks and verbal directions. Kuhn's rock was the landmark in northern Lake County that led slaves to a nearby house to take refuge.

Another glacial rock of note was brought to the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad station in Waukegan. It is believed that about 1900, the railroad transported the 10-foot-tall boulder from near the Lake Koshkonong reservoir in southern Wisconsin. The boulder was placed at the depot at the foot of Washington Street as ornamentation. A water pipe was run up it to create a water feature that flowed during summer months. The boulder became a landmark to train passengers passing through the city.

About 1925, the rock was broken and buried to make way for the station's new baggage room. A similar boulder was placed at Northwestern railroad station in Kenosha, where it remains.