Welcome to the City of Belvidere, Illinois’ “City of Murals”. Belvidere is located in North Central Illinois, 25 minutes south of the Wisconsin border. Only 75 miles from downtown Chicago, 83 miles from downtown Madison, Wisconsin, and 88 miles from downtown Milwaukee, Belvidere is attractive to businesses and residents that want to work or play in the area.
History*: When the first European settlers come to the region around 1835, they camped along the Kishwaukee River, now the center of Belvidere. The settlers decided to name the town Belvidere, for the Latin meaning of Belvidere is “beautiful to see”. By the mid to late 1800’s, Belvidere became an industrial hub. Commercial transportation began in 1851, the National Sewing Machine Company became the largest employer of the city around 1900, and the Green Giant Company came to town in 1911. Now, the Chrysler Corporation Belvidere Assembly Plant, and General Mills all call Belvidere home.
Despite the emergence of industries, Belvidere draws from its proud agrarian roots and heritage as you will see in the pictures and text associated with the Boon County Fair which is considered by many the premiere county fair in Illinois, has been rated among the top 15 fairs in the Midwest at times, and is in its final day for the year today, August 15, 2021. Of the 102 counties in Illinois, Boone is the second smallest. (Only Putnum County in central Illinois is smaller.)
All the time I was growing up the population hovered around 8,000. Then in 1964 when I was in college something happened that forever changed Belvidere.
The Good
Belvidere Assembly Plant and Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant
3000 West Chrysler Drive, Belvidere, Illinois, United States
Floor Space: Nearly 5 million square feet
Acreage: 280 acres
Products: Jeep® Cherokee
History and facilities[edit]
The factory was built in 1964 and 1965 in the south part of Belvidere, Illinois, adjacent to U.S. Route 20. The first production line vehicle was made on July 7, 1965.
The Belvidere Assembly Plant is adjacent to the Chrysler operated Belvidere Satellite Stamping Plant. The stamping plant produces sheet metal parts for the production lie.[ The factory has 5,300,000 square feet (490,000 m2) of floor space over 280 acres (1.1 km2) of land, and had produced 5.9 million vehicles by the end of the 1993 model year.
Past products (model years)
Some of the past models made at the plant included:
- Simca-Talbot Horizon/Chrysler Horizon (1979-1988)
- Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon (1978-1990)
- Dodge Charger (L-body) (1982-1987)
- Chrysler New Yorker (1988-1993)
- Dodge Dynasty (1988-1993)
- Chrysler Imperial (1990-1993)
- Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue (1990-1993)
- Plymouth Neon (1994-2001)
- Dodge Neon (1994-2005)
- Dodge Caliber (2007-2012)
- Dodge Dart (2013–2016)
- Jeep Compass (2007–2016)
- Jeep Patriot (2007–2016)[18] (Wikipedia)
Chrysler brought with it a huge influx of people and by the early 2000’s Belvidere’s population soared to approximately 25,000 and gradually became a diverse ethnic community with a high percentage of Hispanics and Boone County was the 87th fastest growing county in the country and the third fastest growing county in Illinois. Then another major event changed that—the Great Recession just after District 100 built the second high school. I served on the committee that now some think made a bad mistake. But who could have known what was on the horizon (no pun intended regarding one of the models produced here).
1969 MISS AMERICA JUDI JUDITH ANNE FORD AUTOGRAPH PHOTO MISS ILLINOIS BELVIDERE
For Judi’s talent portion of the competition she performed on the trampoline; she was excellent at gymnastics too and became a PE teacher. Constant media updates were posted locally all during the week leading up to the finals; she was a constant front runner. I’m sure every TV set in Belvidere was on the night of the finals.
The Bad and Ugly
Friday April 21, 1967 started out pretty much as a normal April day with students, teachers and the general population looking forward to a nice spring weekend. I was soon to finish my first year of teaching at Hamilton Junior High in Loves Park. By mid afternoon the sky turned ugly and as I prepared to leave to make the 15 mile trip home it was raining hard. By the time I approached Belvidere from the west there was an eerie greenish color to the sky. By the time I was ready to make a left turn onto E. Lincoln Ave. I could hear sirens screaming like I had never heard before so I continued to the downtown area and just followed the sirens until I could drive no further because of downed power lines and uprooted trees. I parked near St. James School and walked east on Logan Ave. and then south on East Ave. (I know, lots of avenues). Soon I met a group a people approaching me. I asked what had happened. What a dumb rhetorical question that was. “Tornado” “Anyone killed?” another dumb question! By the time I reached the high school I was in utter shock and disbelief. Devastation all around me; the new high school in its first year of operation heavily damaged. It looked like a bomb had totally destroyed blocks and blocks of homes. It reminded me of some of my war movies and documentaries, only this was real.
I did something that I probably (definitely) should not have done. I entered the school either through a door that either the tornado ripped off or had been taken taken off its hinges for a reason I will explain momentarily and made my way to the gymnasium and saw the most grisly sight ever in my life. There on the gym floor were rows of sheet covered bodies that had been brought there on doors removed from the building, a temporary morgue
I wept as I left, sorry that I had entered.
Two days later Govenor Kerner toured the area. I was just a few paces behind his entourage as a light snow fell on the landscape, sort of a sign of peace and tranquility amidst all the sorrow. A school bus driver that was killed was a respected member of my church. In all 24 souls lost their lives that day. I could tell stories that came out over the years, stories of sadness but also of heroics. During the summers of my college years and after I split my time working at Green Giant and the Belvidere Oasis on the I90 tollway at the Standard Oil gas station. That summer I talked to some people that were traveling on the tollway that day and saw the tornado. Later it was classified as an EF4 tornado.
The Good
Belvidere is known as the City of Murals, and Jay Allen, owner and president of ShawCraft Sign Co., Inc., in Machesney Park, Ill., is a big reason why.
Born and raised in Belvidere, Allen is an original member of the Walldogs, a passionate group of mural-painting artists. Since their founding in Allerton, Iowa, in 1993, Allen and fellow artists have completed more than 700 murals across 14 countries.
“Whenever we go to a community, we always see a new sense of spirit,” says Allen, also a board member of the Boone County Arts Council. “I’m addicted to helping communities improve.”
Allen helped to create 10 murals in downtown Belvidere during the city’s Walldog Festival back in 1997. As a result, Belvidere received the 1997 Governor’s Art Award from the Illinois Arts Council and was given the City of Murals nickname by then-Gov. Jim Edgar.
There are 31 murals in Belvidere, and the Walldogs created 11 of them. Several other artists, including local high school students, created the remaining murals. Each one depicts a piece of Belvidere’s rich history, says Allen.
I will add a few of those pictures
“Every community needs to hang its hat on something in order to have a sense of community pride,” he says. “The murals help give Belvidere an identity.”
Many of the murals can be found in the downtown district along State Street, from Hurlbut Street to Logan Avenue. Other murals can also be found along First Street.(rrstar 7/2/2020)
The Pride of Boone county-The Boone County Fair
In the August 9, 2021 edition of the Rockford Register Star (Winnebago county) “Illinois’ most popular county fair returns after last year’s fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019 the Boone County Fair saw a record 222,131 people in attendance according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture records.” “People just can’t wait for it to happen” said Tom Ratcliffe, advertising director for the Boone County Fair “…many fair favorites will be back this year, including the Queen of the Boone County Fair Pageant …” “There are daily horse shows, live music, and an agricultural exhibition with roughly 4,000 head of livestock ranging form cows and horses to chickens and alpacas. “There are about 200 vendors including the volunteer firemen donuts and the Cosmo Sweet corn and many other eateries.
Granges began in ‘the early 20th century as a social organization for farming families.
A friend who used to snowbird in Florida told the the story of meeting a local who upon seeing his Illinois license plates asked where in Illinois he lived. When told Belvidere the guy said they plan their vacation each year around the Boone County Fair. Quite a story!
Finally some photos of my favorite local parks
As kids will do, we used to swing the bridge as much as possible. One summer I lived on the north side of the Kishwaukee River and worked as a troubleshooter for Belvedere (spelled correctly) Products who made automatic hair washing machines & other salon equipment on the south side. I sometimes rode my bike to the bridge, carried it up several steps, rode across the bridge,and carried bike down stairs to continue to work.
Hope you enjoyed the tour.
I originally intended to modify this essay in a presentation to my 60 year high school class reunion mainly for the benefit of out-of- town class members but we canceled the reunion last week due to variant concerns.