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Learn about the history of Fox Waterway development May 10

The Lake County Home and Community Education Association is proud to host a "Lunch and Learn" presentation of "Fox Waterway Development History" by David Lester, a lifelong resident of Lake and McHenry counties and a graduate from Crystal Lake Community High School.

Living near and boating on the Fox Chain O' Lakes in northeastern Illinois for more than three decades, Lester researched, penned and self-published "The History of Boating on the Fox Chain O' Lakes," a 580-page pictorial history.

His research includes contributions from local historians and private collectors from Wilmot to Algonquin and recounts tourism, economic and boating developments on the Fox River and Chain from the mid-1800s to present. Tourism and shoreline development boomed from the Gay Nineties through the Roaring Twenties as affluent families traded the heat, congestion and aroma of the Chicago Stockyards for the pristine beauty and watery playground that the Fox Lake Region offers to this day.

"The knowledge that I have gained through continuing investigations plus the information brought by longtime residents has made each of the more than 20 recent historical presentations both unique and richer than the last," Lester says.

Local historians are always welcome to provide their personal and familial accounts of living and boating on the Fox Chain.

Bring your lunch, and learn how the railroads, forestry, agriculture, gravel mining, ice harvesting, tourism, roadway improvements, boat building and boat racing each played a part in the Fox Chain Region's development history.

The lecture will begin at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 10, at University of Illinois Extension office, 100 S. Route 45, Grayslake, IL 60030.

A book signing and Q&A session will follow the presentation at 12:30 p.m.

For a preview of the Fox Chain's boating history, visit the book website at www.foxchainboatinghistory.com and its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/foxchainboatinghistory.

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