Started on 9/11/2001 (didn't feel like doing much ordinary work...) Read a slashdot.org article about AT&T towers being sold. See here.
This led to a few other sites with even more links to the history of AUTOVON, the role the towers played in the Cold War, what's hidden under some of them, etc. There were relatively few photos of those in Illinois, so what the heck, I'll try to contribute.
I've also read in a Web or Usenet article that the origins of packet swicthing work done at DARPA were linked to the AUTOVON, so it makes the whole thing even more attractive: the 'Net may have been born in hardened spots like these, with people driving by and not seeing even a fraction of what was really there, and how it will end up influencing their lives.
For reference, here are a few comprehensive sites by other people:
Mark Foster (seems to
be in long-term cold storage)
Albert LaFrance (cold war)
Albert LaFrance (L4 system)
Michael Jacobs
Daryl Gibson
Ed Thelen's Nike website and
another one by Donald E. Bender
I find it truly fascinating: until 1981 I was on the other side of the curtain, in Poland, hoping against hope that it will all end (when I was leaving for the U.S. nobody really believed they would see it end in their lifetime).
Anything defense-related was much more secret there, and the government was in a bit of a conundrum: how can we say that we are preparing for war if we are among the "oppressed, peace-loving nations" and "innocent victims of imperialist aggression"? So even the smallest glimpses of the behind-the-scenes reality were very exciting, and it's still in me even now.
Anyway, I'm now enjoying tracking down the towers, visiting Nike sites, looking up close at these remnants of the darker times.
[12/22/2006: Switched from MapQuest to Google for maps. Suddenly MapQuest ones don't work without JavaScript, which I try to keep turned off as the source of most iEvil™. I understand a site using scripting to spiff things up, but when it simply stops working without it altogether, it's annoying in the extreme, and stupid to boot.]
9/15/2001
Trip towards the Norway, IL AT&T tower. Total 108.6 mi.
Train crossing in Cortland: 41.92166, -88.68888.
Train crossing on Somonauk Rd. near Hinckley: 41.76638, -88.65194.
Larger crossing in Somonauk (B & N): 41.63694, -88.67027.
Had a sandwich at a gas station in Sandwich. Went to Plano, but didn't see a tower. Later read that the tower was demolished, and only a main buiding and the underground remains as an active AT&T facility. Didn't see it, because I didn't know what to look for [but see below].
Microwave tower (on a pipeline station property) south of Sandwich: 41.62416, -88.58222. A few hundred yards south of it, on the opposite side of the road, there is something which looks like a repeater hut in good shape.
Norway AT&T tower and facility:
41.45583, -88.62027. Very
impressive. The road beyond the nearby intersection is abandoned
(closed), that's where I went to take some of the pictures. All
taken on 9/15/2001:
Overall view
Main building, "AT&T Communications" sign on the door.
Close up from a driveway at the foot of the tower
Microwave tower west of Norway: 41.46555, -88.67861. Next to a farm, with a small control building. No idea of the purpose or operator.
Microwave tower in Serena: 41.76888, -88.82000 (or is it one next to cell towers west of Waterman?)
Went west some more, but ran out of color neg. film. Saw from afar what must be the Lee (Ogle County) tower, which is marked on a detailed diagram from one of the L-series history sites. Remembered (duh!) that DeKalb has its own tower, close to the Nestle plant. Will go to photograph and GPS it.
9/16/2001
AT&T station with two tall thin towers (one with a microwave dish) and a bunch of large satellite dishes (mainly cable TV I guess), behind trees close to my home: 41.97617, -88.72575.
9/21/2001
Trip to the West. First the DeKalb tower, 41.91244, -88.74844, right next to a small Spaulding factory. No pictures, sun from behind, will do it in the afternoon.
Continuing to Lee, took side roads which were pretty bad, should
have stayed on Perry Rd. The tower is unique in that it has both
a newer tower like the Norway one, and an older one, like those
in Indiana. "Tower Sites, Inc" sign next to the driveway, and a
faded AT&T sign and logo. This reminds me how Ron Graham joked
that the symbols only get better, since first it was a German
helmet (Ma Bell), then Death Star (AT&T), now it's just a child's
doodle (Lucent). There is a largish surface building, almost as
large as the one in Norway. 41.84468, -88.92503:
Tower Sites sign
Overall view
Went there much later (10/13/2006) invited by the owner:
View from the bottom of the older tower
Waveguides removed during renovation
Drove south on I-39 towards Mendota, but decided it was too far so took 30 to 52 north to Rochelle. Stopped at the Railroad Park (41.92034, -89.07261, submitted to waypoint.org). There were lots of train nuts, but only one short local freight train.
Drove north to Kings, no sign of a big tower, only a mid-size microwave one with cell antennas on top.
North to 72, then east
to Monroe Center. The tower looks older and smaller than Norway,
only 3 or so horns, small surface building in disrepair.
42.10101, -88.98518:
Overall view
Closeup of the base
9/22/2001
Trip to the east. Plato Center first,
42.01996, -88.48344. Owned by American Towers,
sign says "FCC license not required" so most likely dead.
Note from Parris B. Wood:
"You list the plato site sign as reading FCC
license not required. That is deciving and probably an error on American
Towers part. What they are refering to by FCC ---- not required is that
the structure does not need to be registered with the FCC for a tower
number. The microwave license could be expired but the FCC Registration #
has nothing to do with the actual service licenses."
Big
school complex across the road - I remember we were there a few
years ago when the kids were in a karate demo, and I recall
seeing the tower (only back then I didn't think twice about it):
Overall view
American Towers sign
Decided to skip Elgin, since I'm not sure if I have the right spot (Carpentersville?) and it's quite far. On to Wasco, which is where we pass on the way to St. Charles, Geneva, or the Fox Valley R/C aircraft field. The tower is at 41.91946, -88.42882. Looks older than other steel ones I saw, but seems to be in use. A second tower nearby on the same property. Hard to find a parking spot, didn't take any pictures.
Detour to the Nike Park in Lombard (Addison, really) which I
found through the USGS search (I suspected there might be more
than one "Nike Park", like the one in Warrenville). My Magellan
315 led me to it without a hitch. Only it's in the middle of
industrial parks (a large UPS facility is to the east)
so there is only one way in, from Rohlwing Rd. north of Fullerton,
an unmarked driveway just past Porter Pipe and Supply which leads
to a small parking lot. Sure enough,
it's a little ballpark and playground for kids, but even I could
recognize a radar base in good shape, and a control building in an
even better condition (new A/C ducts, cables, etc.) I guess it's
used as power source for the park floodlights, plus probably as
a storage site of some sort. Later found it listed on Ed Thelen's
page. 41.92267, -88.02965:
Overall view
Radar base
Control building
South to the Warrenville Nike Sports Park, just to take a peek: 41.79999, -88.15180. No sign of anything, other than the name. Berm-like earth grading to the north, but that wouldn't be a control site feature so it's probably unrelated. The launcher was where the Amoco center is now, north of I-88.
Eola AT&T tower, looks active, on Diehl Rd. at
41.79937, -88.23654:
Overall view
There is another one nearby on Butterfield Rd., at
41.81896, -88.22401 - I'll have to go and take
look at them again.
South to Oswego, then towards Little Rock on Rte. 30, went
straight ahead on a rural road at a stop sign where 30 turned
90 degrees to the north. The facility is actually quite a bit
north of Plano, a few miles
east of Little Rock at 41.70593, -88.50847
(it's listed as Little Rock on an old AT&T diagram of routes). No
tall tower, only a short one (20" or so?) looking like the one in
Williamstown, KY on
Mike Foster's
picture page. Large site, newer buildings, several trucks and
U-Haul-type trailers, big reels of cable, etc. Took a picture,
it will probably look the same as the one on Albert
LaFrances' page:
Overall view
Finally DeKalb to take some pictures; sun was setting this time,
we'll see. Looks like an active site with all the official AT&T signs:
Overall view
6/21/2003
Cloverdale, listed on the Spring Grove 1953 map. Assuming that I found the right place, 41.93464, -88.10036, there are two towers - one probably older and fairly short; the other taller, four-sided steel lattice one. They are now apparently used by the DuPage County emergency communications system, DuComm (for more see the CARMA page [link rot! - EJB 2007]). Here's a picture taken from the west. [yep, that's Cloverdale - see this page - EJB 2007]
7/20/2003
Lemont, approx. 41.66040, -88.01020, part of the Spring Grove route. Assuming I found the right one, that is. There is an ordinary-looking tower with a few round microwave antennas of the kind with conical front. Another shorter tower next to it, looks like cellular. Didn't take a picture. Pretty area, go north on Smith Rd. to cross the river, lots of forest preserves.
8/4/2003
Possibly a former AT&T tower, NW of Dixon, 41.87353, -89.53625 [yes; see this page - EJB 2007].
10/18/2003
Sublette tower, older concrete type, 41.65860, -89.27511.
4/23/2004
WSW of Rockford, at Kelley and S. Weldon Rds, 42.24753, -89.19535. Looks active and in good shape, similar to the one in Norway and Eola Rd. near Aurora. Here is a picture taken from the south side.
north:
Rockford - downtown?
Elgin
More Nike:
Burnham Pk. (Lake Shore & 31st)
Palos Heights, radar south of 294, 1 m. west of Cicero; L: 1 mi. West, S. of I-294
Arlington Hts.: control N. side of Algonquin at Golf; launcher S. of Central, W. of State; another control site W. of State, S. of White Oak
Orland Pk. C: SW Orland Pk, S of 153rd St.; L: SE Orland Pk, N of 159th St.
Park/field in Plano, IL north of the BNSF track, strange concrete pillars, but not listed as Nike site anywhere...
