Though there are many good reasons to visit Lake County, most of the people I know–at least those proud to be known as city dwellers–can name only a few: Ravinia, Great America, Gurnee Mills Mall or some golf course or other.
Even some of those who, in increasing numbers, live and work in Lake County, don’t really know much about the place.
Not one of the dozen or so Lake County residents I asked could tell me that the county is 457 square miles in size and was created on March 1, 1839, after being carved from what was then the eastern part of McHenry County.
Those are but a couple of the things one can learn by visiting the Lake County Museum–and one should.
The handsome building–once a barn and stable complex–is tucked into the Lakewood Forest Preserve on Illinois Highway 176 west of Fairfield Road in Wauconda (847-526-7878).
It is a wonderful place, filled with more than 20,000 items, including the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, the largest publicly held postcard collection in the world. There are 4,000 of them.
There is also a pipe smoked by a Confederate spy; weaponry given to the museum when Ft. Sheridan closed in 1993; period clothing, furniture and housewares; prehistoric stone axes; and newspapers, photographs, diaries and maps.
The nearby grounds are lovely, made for picnicking. And if you decide to visit the museum, you might want to do it soon, because you can also partake of the not-far-away Lake County Fair, with all manner of activities and sights–beauty pageants, music, rodeo, demolition derbies, horse shows, tractor pulls and food.
The fair starts Tuesday in Grayslake, at U.S. Highway 45 and and Illinois Highway 120, and runs through Aug. 2.
Leave your golf clubs at home.
