DeKalb County Excellence in Education Award Recipients Recognized
March 21, 2016
LEARNING OPPORTUNITY! Powers of Attorney: What are they? Why are they important?
April 7, 2016
Now available for only $15!
Read the book that tracks Sycamore’s past, from muddy roads to iron rails, from an unbroken prairie to a city of industry! Books can be purchased at one of the following locations: DeKalb County Community Foundation, Joiner History Room (Sycamore Public Library), Sycamore History Museum, Ellwood House Visitor’s Center, Glidden Homestead Visitor’s Center, Sweet Earth (downtown Sycamore), Sycamore Antiques, and online at Amazon.com.
During the Sycamore & Cortland Railroad’s 24 years of independent operation (1859-1883), the city treated the railroad and each of its depots like public monuments. They were built in a time of extreme competition among frontier towns. Sycamoreans understood that without a railroad, their city would have dried up and disappeared, passed over by progress, left to decay on the wild northern Illinois prairie.
Writer and historian Clint Cargile brings Sycamore’s unique railroad history to life. He weaves the story of the Sycamore & Cortland Railroad into the history of the city itself, showing that Sycamore may owe its existence to the five miles of railroad track and the depots that served as a gateway to commerce, culture, and a century of American progress.
Today, the handsome brick depot is all that remains of the railroad that saved Sycamore. When the building was completed in 1880, however, it stood as the very soul of the city. This book does more than tell the history of a railroad and a building, it captures the history of a city as it struggled to rise from the prairie and discover its destiny.
[The railroad] has made our little town, in spite of hard times, the thriftiest business place of its size in Northern Illinois. -Sycamore True Republican, 1861, on the impact of the Sycamore & Cortland Railroad
Be sure to pick up your copy today! For questions or additional information please contact Barb King, Administrative Manager, barb@dekalbccf.org or 815-748-5383. Please make checks payable to: DeKalb County Community Foundation.
