Echoes of the past: Shots were heard recently at the scene of a robbery that took place 74 years ago in Rondout. They were not ghostly echoes but very real rounds shot by members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Libertyville Memorial Post 874, in dedicating a monument to what has been recorded in books as the “Great Rondout Train Robbery.”
A gang of eight (eventually nabbed) had held up a Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul mail train near Illinois Highway 176 on June 12, 1924, to the tune of $2 million to $3.5 million, making it the largest-ever U.S. train heist and worthy of a historical marker. But it was not until June 13 of this year that a marker as significant as the deed was situated near the site. In 1981, a marker was placed on the west side of the tracks just north of Illinois 176, but its 4-foot height and insignificant base drew little interest–except to be knocked down, repaired and reinstalled.
That has been rectified, according to Libertyville-Mundelein Historical Society President Dean Larson, who worked with local businesses, METRA and the Illinois Department of Transportation to install a fitting base. The marker now stands in a 10-foot-wide elevated planter on an 8-foot section of donated railroad track.
“It looks good,” Larson said, “and it is the only historical marker I know of in the world that sits on top of railroad tracks,” though no trains travel on this track.