Willowbrook

DuPage County, Illinois, United States

The first train to reach this place in 1864 carried passengers who could see prairie fire smoke rising from horizons in three directions, a sight that would vanish within a decade as the [[rabbit:Great Chicago Fire]] refugees arrived with plows and fencing wire. What they found was land the Potawatomi had called Zhigaagewon, meaning "place of the skunk," though whether this referred to the actual animals that denned in the oak groves or to something more ceremonial remains unclear in the fragmentary records.

Willowbrook occupies 2.3 square miles of what was once tallgrass prairie in southeastern DuPage County, Illinois, 20 miles southwest of Chicago's Loop. The elevation here ranges from 650 to 720 feet above sea level, high enough to stay clear of the seasonal flooding that plagued settlements closer to the [[rabbit:Des Plaines River]] corridor two miles east. Standing at the intersection of 63rd Street and Kingery Highway today, a visitor sees suburban subdivisions and strip malls, but the gentle roll of the land still reflects the ancient beach ridges of [[rabbit:Lake Chicago]], the massive glacial lake that covered this region 14,000 years ago.

The Potawatomi understood this landscape as part of a larger seasonal circuit. They established temporary camps here during autumn hunts, when the prairie grasses dried to tinder and controlled burns drove deer and elk toward the oak groves that dotted the higher ground. Archaeological evidence from the 1950s, before subdivision development erased most traces, suggests these camps focused on the area now bounded by 55th and 67th Streets, where a slight rise provided both defensible positioning and access to the small creeks that drained eastward toward the Des Plaines.

The [[rabbit:Treaty of Chicago]] in 1833 extinguished Potawatomi claims to this land, though many families continued to return for seasonal hunts until the late 1840s. The first Euro-American settlers arrived in 1836, drawn not by any particular geographic advantage but by the availability of cheap federal land. The prairie soil here proved fertile once broken, but the lack of timber meant settlers had to haul wood from the Des Plaines River bottoms or import it by wagon from established towns. This transportation cost kept the area sparsely settled through the 1850s.

The [[rabbit:Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]] changed everything when it extended westward through this area in 1864. The railroad established a flag stop called Hinsdale Junction where the tracks crossed what would become Kingery Highway, though no actual settlement developed at the crossing for another decade. Instead, farmers scattered their homesteads across the prairie, growing wheat and corn on quarter-section plots. The railroad connection allowed them to ship grain to Chicago markets, but the nearest depot was three miles away in Hinsdale, requiring farmers to haul their crops by wagon across often muddy prairie roads.

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 sent waves of displaced families searching for affordable land within commuting distance of the rebuilding city. Some found their way to this area, establishing the first cluster of permanent residences around what is now the intersection of 63rd Street and Kingery Highway. These settlers platted the village of Willowbrook in 1874, naming it for the willows that grew along the seasonal creek beds, though the actual incorporation would not occur until 1960.

Development remained sparse until the 1920s, when improved roads and the spread of automobile ownership made suburban living practical for Chicago workers. The [[rabbit:Civilian Conservation Corps]] built Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve on the former site of [[rabbit:Argonne National Laboratory]] just south of the village in the 1930s, creating a buffer of protected land that would shape Willowbrook's future development patterns. The preserve encompassed the area's most significant topographic feature, a series of small ravines carved by post-glacial drainage that had provided shelter for both Potawatomi camps and early homesteaders.

World War II transformed the region when Argonne National Laboratory was established in 1946 to conduct nuclear research. The laboratory brought hundreds of scientists and technicians to DuPage County, many of whom chose to live in the quiet farming communities nearby. Willowbrook's population grew from 200 residents in 1940 to nearly 1,500 by 1960, the year the village finally incorporated to gain control over its own zoning and development.

The construction of [[rabbit:Interstate 55]] in the early 1960s, running directly through the village's southern edge, accelerated suburban growth throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Developers filled the former prairie with subdivisions bearing names like Prairie View and Oak Brook Hills, though few oaks remained by then. The village's population peaked at around 8,500 residents in 2000, stabilizing at that level as available land became scarce.

The [[rabbit:Burr Ridge Village Center]] shopping complex, built on former farmland just west of the village limits, illustrates how thoroughly the prairie economy has vanished. Where Potawatomi hunters once tracked elk through tallgrass, and where German and Irish farmers once grew wheat for Chicago markets, shoppers now park on asphalt lots to visit chain restaurants and big-box stores. Yet the underlying topography still asserts itself: the shopping center's parking lot slopes eastward following the same gradient that once carried prairie runoff toward the Des Plaines River, and the retention ponds that manage stormwater occupy the same low spots where willows once marked the seasonal creek beds that gave this place its name.