Thursday, February 16, 2012

Fox Lake, Illinois: A Resort Town-- Part 3

This series is from the Spring 2010 Fox Lake grant Township Area Historical Society bulletin.

Rates for the resorts back in the early 1900s were really reasonable compared to today's rates, but costly to those folks. They ranged from $1.50 to $2 per day and from a whopping $9 to $10 a week. These rates included food and free use of rowboats (no motorboats back then).

The ones built on lower elevations were sometimes plagued by spring floods. But the biggest fear of business owners was fire. The buildings were made of wood and there just wasn't much as far as fire fighting equipment and even then it would be difficult to get the stuff where it was needed considering the sorry shape of area roads.

Many burned down.

So that's the Chain of Lakes, Illinois. --Cooter

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