The stately old oak forest just east of Oak Forest looks like most other area woodlands, but it conceals a violent past.
Those who look closely at a clearing in the Midlothian Meadows forest preserve might find an old foundation — stony remnants that stand out from the usual assortment of rocks because they turn at right angles.
It’s all that’s left of a gunpowder factory and storage facility operated by turn of the 20th century industrial powerhouse DuPont. It was erected on the east side of the Rock Island railroad tracks at about 155th Street in the 1890s after the company was evicted from a previous facility in what was then known as the Town of Lake on Chicago’s South Side because its facility there exploded.
The new one had its own train station between Midlothian and Tinley Park called DuPont as well as a rail siding leading directly to “what they claimed was the world’s largest gunpowder magazine and factory,” according to an entry in the Encyclopedia of Chicago
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written by historian Larry McClellan.The factory ceased being the world’s largest anything on an early November day in 1906, when it was “ignited by a prairie fire” and exploded, according to a short story on the front page of the Nov. 8, 1906, edition of the Moline Dispatch.
The only reported fatalities were unlucky teamster Charles Steffenhagen and his horses, who were driving by at the wrong time.
“Glass within a radius of a mile was shattered,” the newspaper story stated.
An internet search of “DuPont powder factory explosion” turns up lots of results from that time period, including one catastrophe that took out an entire Indiana town a year later, which may explain why the destruction of what was called the world’s largest gunpowder magazine didn’t make more of a lasting impression on the area.
With the large exception of its effects on Charles Steffenhagen and his horses and family, it may have been a good thing the plant blew up when it did. Cook County officials were already in the process of planning what would become Oak Forest Hospital, creating a land boom in the vicinity.
According to a report in the Dec. 28, 1907, edition of The Economist, land speculators purchased 200 acres “at a station called DuPont on the Rock Island road” from the gunpowder company for just under $20,000.
“Part of the land years ago was occupied by a powder plant, but after it exploded, the owners never cared very much for the neighborhood and never rebuilt,” the story stated, noting the land was “attractive.”
“It may be that a town will be established and it is also possible it might be used for golf links,” the report indicated.
Instead, as befits attractive land, it’s now a forest preserve.
Only a few years before the explosive violence at the gunpowder plant, another deadly occurrence started at the DuPont train station. It was a 20th century throwback to the Old West, a train robbery followed by posses tracking down murderous villains and horse thieves.
A story in the July 5, 1902 baiduhai details how three men robbed an express train of five Pullman sleepers and other cars from Chicago bound for Denver. The robbers, who were already on the train, climbed atop the engine and at gunpoint demanded it stop at DuPont.
One of the railroad workers was shot when the robbers thought he was trying to escape, the Tribune story said, and “some of the more venturesome passengers” in the Pullman cars began shooting from the coach windows, with the robbers returning fire.
An attempt to uncouple the engine and car containing a safe and valuables was unsuccessful amid the shootout, and the robbers fled instead with some jewelry and cash.
Once again, the topography of what is now Midlothian Meadows played a role, at least according to the contemporary account. “The spot selected by the robbers at which to stop the train is peculiarly adapted for holdup purposes,” the Tribune story stated, with its “high banks that are heavily wooded” and surrounding country “that is covered in timber.”
The robbers fled, stealing teams of horses and wagons along the way from farmers in the Oak Forest area and again in Willow Springs, where they exchanged gunfire with a shotgun-wielding farmer. Posses pursued them to Worth but lost the trail at Lemont, where authorities feared they were able to board an Alton or Santa Fe train and escape for good.
The Great DuPont Train Robbery remains unsolved.
Landmarks is a weekly column by Paul Eisenberg exploring the people, places and things that have left an indelible mark on the Southland. He can be reached at [email protected].