Peoria Illinoisan

As reported in Saturday’s Journal Star, there is a group attempting to raise money to get the Madison restored and up to code, with previously reported estimates of 10-12 million to fully restore it.  If you’re not doing anything this Wednesday, head on down there at 9am for a public rally.  A press conference is scheduled for Saturday the 16th.  Without major taxpayer assistance I don’t see how they’re going to pull this off, but I certainly wish them the best of luck.

https://www.facebook.com/Battleforthemadison

I got a phone call from my daughter yesterday that our power was out and I needed to come home.  As I drove down the street I noticed everyone’s lights were on… except ours.  Having paid the bills just a week earlier and being enrolled in their auto-debit pay system, I figured a squirrel or something was behind this, so I called to report an outage only to be told that my bill was unpaid.  Furthermore, I was told disconnect statements were sent out as was a phone call which was listed as being picked up by an answering machine.

I couldn’t find any bills or statements (I throw them out after looking them over and/or paying) and there were no messages on my answering machine from them.  Checking later, there were no emails sent either.

This wasn’t the time to argue and I didn’t want to spend the evening playing scrabble by candlelight, so I payed the bill in full over the phone.  In short order someone showed up to restore power, but I was a little taken aback by what he had to say, and he prefaced it by “you didn’t hear it from me.”

Supposedly Ameren is cracking down on residential customers, and he had to disconnect someone for an unpaid $25 bill.  He also said, they got rid of many positions, oversight of web and autopayments being one of them.  Infact, the Ameren guy was recently given a notice to disconnect his own house, even though he works for them and was signed up for auto-debit!

“They’re dicking people around.”

He now only pays his bills through the mail or in person at Schnucks and suggested I do the same.

If you autopay, you might want to keep a close eye on it.

Contrary to how it may appear, I’m still blogging.  Go here and join the discussion: http://namethispeorialandmark.blogpeoria.com/

According to CIProud.com the lights on University headed north from the I74 overpass to Glen are synchronized and if you drive the speed limit you’ll flow freely.

That means if you reach a green light and keep driving the speed limit, you’ll avoid hitting any red lights. The synchronized stretch runs from Interstate 74 to Glen Avenue.

The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission says the reduction in vehicle idling will reduce emissions by almost three tons every year.

The change cost about $18,000

I drive this stretch of road nearly every day… today I was hit with red lights at the overpass of 74, again at Nebraska, then War Memorial.  The light at Lake was “yellow, sir” to quote the Blues Brothers, but was stopped again at Glen.

Headed southbound is no better … maybe if I traverse this stretch of road at 2am when there is no traffic the lights will be perfectly timed, but I’ve noticed no difference whatsoever in the lights or my travel time going to and from work. (sorry traffic guys)

Gone for a week and I come home to this?  I didn’t even get to say goodbye!

This is what it used to look like, shown oh so long ago as Peoria Landmark #3

Following up on my previous post, a small group of us set out to find the rest of the trail connecting Grand View to what used to be Al Fresco park.  From my previous trip, and having been told by a Park District employee that it was an “unimproved trail” and a pretty rough go, I knew it would a little difficult … but I had no idea how rough it was going to be.

We knew we were on the right track a few hundred feet in what we see this piece of cement sticking out of the hillside, presumably part of a stairway.

but not long after there was a collective “umm… this is a trail?”  That would be the first of many times that thought crossed our minds.

We proceeded to follow a creek down the bluff figuring we’d get down to Rte 29 eventually.

Careful there guys!

aside – this mysterious drainage pipe followed us most of the way down the bluff, popping out every now and again.

Look over there – it appears to be a flatted pathway running parallel to the creek – who wants to play Tarzan over the creekbed?

more path

more where the hell did the path go?

back on track and hearing traffic noises.

the exit… a pile of rocks.

We never saw any evidence of benches, resting areas or electricity.  What we did find was evidence in multiple places of a trail – some portions of a sidewalk, some drainage pipes (besides the one shown) that would run water storm under the trail and many large boulders which may have been used to line the edge.  Most portions of the trail have been washed away by time, but it was quite clear that we were, infact, walking along Gibson Pathway.

Be sure to check out Ramble’s blog for a different, yet similar, perspective on our hike through the woods.

After a few well placed calls I was told how to find Gibson Pathway, the walking path connecting Grand View to Al Fresco park, from Grand View.  When the phrase “rigorous hike” came into the conversation I didn’t give it much thought, but upon seeing it, “rigorous hike” was an understatement.  The trailhead starts across the street from the Peoria Country Club GC Clubhouse.

Park in the golf course parking lot and walk towards the jog in the sidewalk and the large Oak.

Getting up close you’ll see this patch of cement.

Upon walking into the woods, to the right of the tree, I spied the edge of what appeared to be an old sidewalk.  I cleared some of the brush out of the way with my foot to expose more.

A bit further up, the “trail” seemed to continue with this massive fallen tree blocking it; a steep falloff into a ravine is to the left.

Somewhat unsure if this really was the trail and ill-prepared for the ruggedness of the hike, I backtracked and walked further down Grand View, past where the fallen tree was, and peered down from the treeline to see another sidewalk looking patch of cement.

I plan to attempt to find the entire trail, but not alone, with boots, and with someone who can park at the bottom so we don’t have to hike and hack our way back up the bluff.  Any takers?

Oh the irony.  How do you follow up a press conference, which included the mayor, asking the big wigs at Gatehouse to get their sh*t together regarding the flailing Journal Star?  Report on something that took place a month ago, thereby reinforcing the fact that our once proud newspaper has fallen into the crapper.

The story was regarding the (primarily) Limestone H.S. First Robotics team which won their regional competition at Purdue University and is headed to the national championships in St Louis, along with a Washington/Metamora team.

Here’s a video of a great semi-final match.  The Limestone team is #1756 on the blue side.

Best of luck at nationals kids.

While talking to someone on Chef Kevin’s lower Glen Oak tour over the weekend, it was mentioned that there is or was some sort of walkway from Grandview Drive down to Al Fresco park.  In looking at an aerial view of the woods, I didn’t see anything resembling a path, but I did find this really good article about the park, which I thought I’d share.

Summers in Peoria today are different from those of the past. One large difference today is the absence of the Al Fresco Amusement Park, the largest attraction to Peoria Heights between the months of May and September. The park opened exactly 100 years ago this past June and was in business for over 20 years, yet some are ignorant of the fact that it even existed.

In 1904, a man from Chicago by the name of Vernon Seaver made his way into Central Illinois with a plan. Seaver, president of the Trans-Continental Amusement Company, wanted to provide Peoria with an amusement park. The entrepreneur had constructed White City Park in Chicago and was prepared to model the Peoria park after it. He allegedly anchored his yacht at the foot of Main Street in the Illinois River and searched the area for the ideal location for his creation, according to Marge Steenrod of the Penny Press, 1972.

What he decided upon was an area in Peoria Heights off Galena Road adjacent to the Illinois River. Thomas Webb, a prominent Peoria diamond jeweler, owned the land, and agreed to participate in Seaver’s project. All Seaver needed now was financial assistance. Luckily, John Finley, head of the Central City Streetcar Company, backed funding for the park. Finley’s assistance didn’t come merely from the kindness of his heart; he figured that the amusement park would bring enormous amounts of business to the streetcar company during the summer months. As the future popularity of the park would show, he was right.

Construction of the park began immediately. Seaver obtained the services of the Ingersoll Amusement Company to build many of the park’s main attractions, including a 65 foot-high Ferris wheel and a figure-8 roller coaster. Most of the rides contained within the park were the first of their kind in Central Illinois. Not all facets of this production came from scratch; the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair provided statues, benches and lights to the park, according to Mary Rogers Heubach of the Peoria Journal Star, 1999.

Word quickly spread of the park’s construction, and residents of Central Illinois eagerly anticipated the opening of their newest attraction. Seaver named his park Al Fresco, meaning open air, and in a March 1904 article of the Journal Star declared it be a “summer resort free from all vulgarity, where families can go and have innocent enjoyment.”

The article’s anonymous author sang Seaver’s praises, stating that “such a place has been a long felt want in Peoria and it seems a wonder that in a prosperous city like Peoria, no one has been enterprising enough to inaugurate a place ere this.”
A short article on June 9, 1905, announced Al Fresco’s opening for the following day. The completed Al Fresco Amusement Park deserved such declaration. It truly was a marvel. Besides the Ferris Wheel and roller coaster, Al Fresco also featured a number of games and other frivolities. Many attractions to the park could be considered dangerous by today’s standards. High wire and high diving acts were quite common, and diving horse acts and motorcycle jump acts also afforded dangerous pleasure. Perhaps the most incendiary of Al Fresco’s performances was what was called the “slide for life.” In this act, a wire was attached to the top of the circle swing ride and stretched to a point on the river. A man was doused with kerosine, set afire, and before he burned himself alive, slid down the wire into the Illinois River.

Also in the park was a two-story pavilion called the Japanese Garden. The second floor featured a movie house that frequently screened films by Charlie Chaplin, while the ground floor housed a pavilion and beer garden. This area hosted a number of vaudeville acts and other performances. Some of the famous faces to grace the stage were escape artist Harry Houdini and boxers John L. Sullivan and Jim Corbett. Frequent performers included bands and orchestras, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and the Cherry Sisters, a three-person singing act.

The Cherry Sisters hailed from Iowa, where their father was forced to mortgage his farm. The sisters formed their singing team to help him. They were by far the most popular act, despite the fact that they sang so badly audiences would throw things at them, forcing them to perform from behind a screen.

Another important draw to Al Fresco was Dewey Beach, which allowed visitors the opportunities to swim and fish. Two bath houses lined the beach, where bathing suits could be rented for 10-25 cents. Fishing boats were also available. Al Fresco’s boat dock contained a popular barge decorated to resemble a battleship.

Admission to the park was 10 cents for adults and five for children, and in the summers between 1905 and 1927 nearly 10,000 people visited the park daily. Vacationers poured in from all around the Midwest, most of them traveling by ship from St. Louis and Chicago. Locals flooded the park as well, and arrived there by various modes of transportation. Some came by streetcar, while others simply parked on Grandview Drive and walked their way to the park via Gibson Pathway. Those who could afford it took steamboat rides from downtown Peoria.

One 1918 steamboat ride in particular ended in tragedy. As the Columbia brought passengers back downtown after a day’s fun at Al Fresco, a whole was torn in the hull, claiming the lives of 87 of the 500 passengers aboard, according to Bill Adams of the Journal Star, 1993. A memorial was dedicated to the victims in 2003.

For most of the twenty-odd years that Al Fresco was in business, however, it maintained the air of innocent fun that Seaver had anticipated. The park and its attractions flourished until the late 20s. Attendance rates began to drop during World War I, but natural causes would ultimately result in the death of the park. During the 20s, the Illinois River, raised by Chicago drainage, permanently flooded portions of the park. Several rides were damaged by this flooding and were never repaired. The dismantling of the famous figure-8 roller coaster in 1928 marked the end of Al Fresco Amusement Park as it was formerly known.

In 1929 the land was leased to Fred C. Feyler, who rented the area out to traveling circuses. Swimmers and picnickers still flocked to the area until World War II. Due to an enormous drop in attendance rates, Feyler declared that all men in uniform would be admitted for free. However, Feyler did not anticipate the number of soldiers that were stationed at nearby Camp Ellis. After his announcement, hundreds of men flocked to the once-popular amusement site. The park was forced to officially close in 1944.

Today, Al Fresco’s address is 4602 N. Galena Road. Occupying the land where thousands of vacationers once frolicked is a trailer park and a private club. The Illinois River is no longer as clean and scenic as it used to be. Though times have changed and the Al Fresco Amusement Park is largely forgotten, the delight and diversion it once brought during its short existence is definitely something to remember this summer.

Today I was getting some prints matted and framed at a local shop and was, get this… accused of being a professional photographer!  Accused is probably not the best way to describe it, but that these weren’t prints from the guy who had framed photos for sale hanging on the wall, but mine, was a huge compliment, even if unintended.

I’d like to thank the Academy, my friends, family, all who have encouraged me along the way, and especially professional photographer David Vernon who gave me a private lesson and was probably shaking his head later thinking it was all in vain.

Don’t worry – I promise not to let this go to my head. 

(mind out of gutter please)

I went to Barnes & Noble tonight to pick up their second album (also known as a CD to the youngins.)  I asked the guy at the counter and he knew exactly what I was looking for and was sure they had some in stock, but after looking it up he had none nor were there any on order.

I paid $14 and change to have it special ordered and delivered to my house via UPS; shipping charges waived.  They’re likely losing money on this transaction but I’m not a stock holder, so I really don’t care, although I did buy a book with a markup that I’m sure will make up the difference.

I mentioned to the sales guy, and he agreed, if the Little Willies were marketed as the Little Willies featuring Norah Jones, they’d have 20 copies in stock.

I give her big props for going under the radar and doing what her heart told her to do after becoming a superstar … of course massive success gave her that opportunity, but she ran with it instead of turning into a tool of the recording industry.

Bradley won.

Tickets go on sale this Friday the 10th.  Show is on May 5 at the Civic Center Theatre.

I grew up listening to his comedy albums (I own most of them), watching his standup special on HBO, Fat Albert on Saturday mornings and later, of course, the Cosby Show on Thursday nights, yet I’ve never seen him in person.

Question for the peanut gallery – before I shell out $300 for my family to sit in the cheap seats, is the 74 year old still on his game?

Print subscribers now get free access online without having to resort to tricks to circumvent their paywall. Unfortunately they still have all the annoying popup ads, some of which my browser blocks, some not. In addition they’ve recently started another popup called “Up To The Minute” with “Breaking News” (which is really an oxymoron for them, isn’t it?)

So now I get to read online legitimately for free, but after clicking on an article I have to close down one and sometimes two popups before reading it. Not only that, in the past week or so they’ve split their articles up over multiple pages so to read the whole thing you have to click to go to page two or three. What happens when you click to go to the next page? You guessed it – more popups that you have to close down.

How frustrating.

While they finally reversed their idiotic decision to charge print subscribers to read it on the web, the site is so rife with popups it’s as if they’re trying to discourage you from going there, and lets face it, the only time anyone clicks on one of their ads is by accident anyway.

Cut the crap with the popups and believe me, you’ll get more traffic, at least from this reader.