Audio Tour

The following information is scripts written, recorded and aired aboard the public tour of the paddlewheel riverboats.

Safety Announcement

Welcome aboard the St. Charles Paddlewheel Riverboats. Before we get underway, let’s review some safety information. Life jackets are available for everyone on board. On the lower deck, they are located above the bench seating. Child life jackets are designed for persons ninety pounds or less and can be found in front left side of the boat. Adult life jackets are available everywhere else. On the upper deck, life jackets are located in the wooden box in the center of the boat. Child lifejackets for persons ninety pounds or less are toward the back of the box, while adult life jackets are in the front of the box. For those of you on the upper deck, you may have noticed the stairs are steep going up, well … they are significantly steeper going down. Please use the handrails going up and down the stairs. There are two restrooms located on the lower deck in the rear of the boat. Please do not stand on benches. Only sitting or kneeling are permitted. Running is not allowed on the boat. If there are any safety concerns, please report to the deckhand or the captain. We will be underway shortly. If you have any questions, just ask the crew.

Pottawatomie Park

Today, we will be cruising down the Fox River from Pottawatomie Park, both named for the Native American tribes that roamed the area in peace and harmony with nature until early settlers arrived. The Fox River played a vital part in putting St. Charles on the map as a “resort community.” In the late eighteen hundreds, tourists and residents took advantage of the cool water during the hot summer months and built cottages along the banks of the river. In the early nineteen hundreds, Pottawatomie Park was one of the first parks in Illinois. Popular amenities such as the 9-hole golf course, ball field, swimming pool and amphitheater are all standing due to a federal grant in the late nineteen thirties to get the unemployed back to work after the Great Depression. Of course, those structures have undergone renovations over the years, but the history and character of the park remains. Today, Pottawatomie is St. Charles Park District’s most popular park with more than a hundred thousand visitors each year.

Native Plant Garden

Outside the west side of the Pottawatomie Community Center is a Native Plant Garden, featuring shaded woodland plants of many varieties. If you stroll through this magnificent area, you’re sure to be inspired to incorporate natives into your own backyard. Indigenous plants are vital in supporting a diverse population of native species including insects, butterflies, birds and other wildlife. And while the Park District does its part to restore the native habitats of more than four hundred acres of natural areas, it’s important for residents to play a role as well.

Pottawatomie Golf Course

Pottawatomie (pott uh watt o me) Golf Course, located on the east side of the river, was designed in nineteen thirty-nine by renowned (re nouned) golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, Senior. He capitalized on the course’s location along the banks of the Fox River when designing its patterns of greens and fairways. It is here you will find his first island green. Another accolade of the golf course is its status as an Audubon (ah du bon) Certified Sanctuary. In nineteen ninety-seven it was the first nine-hole course to earn this international certification. The course has maintained its status ever since, which is a testament to the Park District’s dedication to protecting and preserving the natural integrity of the course.

Spring Birds

In early spring, there is a diverse population of birds flying above and around the river. It’s the best season for bird viewing as the leaves on the trees are still sparse. But as the foliage becomes thicker, it will be harder to detect who’s out and about. So keep your eyes to the sky. You may catch a glimpse of great blue herons, great egrets, double-crested cormorants, green herons and ospreys. Or maybe you’ll see a bald eagle, as they nest along the Fox River and can be spotted year-round.

Summer Birds

During the summer months, swallows and swifts will be out and about. These species feed on assorted river bugs such as caddisflies, midges, mayflies and the like, until dusk.  After sunset, you can hear and sometimes see common nighthawks, also feeding on insects.

Fall Birds

As we head into fall, migratory species will be on the move as well as great blue herons, great egrets, double-crested cormorants, green herons and ospreys.

Norris Woods Nature Preserve

On the east side of the river is Norris Woods, a dedicated nature preserve of seventy-three acres dominated by a red oak and white oak natural forest. Some of these trees are more than a hundred years old. This area is rich with a diverse population of plants such as the twinleaf, squawroot, milkweed, ferns and blue ash, providing a thriving habitat for squirrels, woodchucks, American toads, and many species of nesting birds. The nature preserve is one of the highest quality natural areas remaining in the region. It is named after the Norris family, who owned and protected the property for many years. Dellora and Lester Norris were heirs to John “Bet-A-Million” Gates who made his fortune marketing and selling barbed wire and then later founded the Texaco Oil Company. As philanthropists in St. Charles, the family gifted funds for cultural, educational and governmental projects across the city. The Arcada (R cah duh) Theater, the original Delnor (Dell Nore) Hospital, St. Charles Municipal Center, and St. Charles East High School complex including Norris Recreation Center were all made possible thanks to their generosity.

Norris Woods Bike Path

The Fox River Trail runs through Norris Woods. The trail is forty-five miles from Oswego to Algonquin and was built on stretches of three former railroads. It hosts a multitude of different birds, trees and wildlife. Most popular in our area are bald eagles, herons and woodpeckers. The dog-friendly trail is used by cyclists, walkers, joggers, hikers and even cross-country skiers when snow falls.

Fox River

The Fox River is a two-hundred mile-long tributary of the Illinois River flowing from southeastern Wisconsin to Ottawa, Illinois. The stretch of river through St. Charles is deepest, at seven to eight feet, right above the dam near the Main Street Bridge on Route sixty-four. As we cruise north, the river will become much shallower to only one to two feet deep right before the next dam in Elgin. The first settlers of St. Charles built a dam in eighteen thirty-five using the power of the waterwheel to grind grain and cut lumber. This original wheel is on display downtown St. Charles, west of the Arcada building. Today, people of all ages enjoy the river via paddle sports and motorized boats. Fishermen also enjoy the waterway with a diverse population of fish to catch including smallmouth and largemouth bass, channel catfish, bluegill, walleye, flathead catfish and muskie.

Al Capone

If we were to travel further north, we would see a building on the right side of the river that, according to popular belief, was Al Capone’s secret retreat during Prohibition. The building, which sits vacant today, supposedly had a much different vibe in the early part of the 19th century when it was a restaurant and pub. Not too long ago, the Chicago Tribune retold the stories of this restaurant in St. Charles. It goes like this: Al Capone and his gang used the restaurant to make their own beer that was pumped through a copper tubing system that remains underground. There was also a valve in the men’s bathroom used to control the flow of alcohol. They’d pump the beer through the sink faucets and then switch the valve back to water, if the police showed up. According to our local history museum, it was only known that Al Capone’s beer was sold at the pub. The jury is still out on whether or not Scarface himself frequented the property. Nevertheless, in the nineteen seventies the property was aptly named Al Capone’s Hideaway and Steakhouse and operated as a gangster-themed restaurant for forty years.

Camp Kane

During the Civil War, St. Charles was home to the Union Army training ground known as Camp Kane, where more than one thousand Union soldiers in the eighth and seventeenth Illinois Calvary received their training. The eighth Illinois Cavalry fought in many famous Civil War battles, including Manassas, Williamsburg and Gettysburg. Leading the Calvary were two prestigious men – General John Farnsworth, a lawyer and congressman, and Marcellus Jones, who is known for firing the first shot at Gettysburg. During the Civil War, Farnsworth’s small law office acted as a military recruiting headquarters and a holding cell for deserting soldiers. It was moved from its original location on Cedar Avenue to Camp Kane which is located at the south end of Langum Park between South Seventh Avenue and Route thirty-one on the east of the river. Camp Kane is only one of the four surviving Civil War training ground sites in Illinois. Today the park is known for softball and tennis along with being a popular destination for winter sledding and ice skating. Another interesting fact, Farnsworth was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and nominated Lincoln for U.S. President in eighteen sixty. When Lincoln was shot, this calvary was ordered to search for John Wilkes Booth and guard Lincoln’s tomb while it was in Springfield.

Underground Railroad

According to local legend, the Fox River and properties near the shore aided in transporting freedom seekers, or slaves, in the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. Popular stories include Klink’s Carriage and Wagon Shop hiding slaves under piles of straw; the Moss Funeral Home transporting slaves via a hidden staircase and basement tunnels; and the Wheeler Farm using an underground tunnel to establish a quick escape from the house to the barn. These properties are only a partial list of the tales circulated throughout the town, passed on for generations.

These stories have only been perpetuated in local history books, newspaper articles and uncovered family letters. But according to extensive research by our local history museum, none of these accounts have enough evidence to determine they were in fact, part of the Underground Railroad.

Ferson Creek Fen Nature Preserve

On the west side of the river is Ferson Creek Fen Nature Preserve, a thirty-acre area dedicated by the State of Illinois in nineteen ninty. The fen supports an uncommon yet essential ecosystem that is unfortunately, rapidly disappearing across the country. Fens are critical in helping reduce flooding and affecting the quality of water. A specific population of plants and animals, like skippers, leopard frogs and swamp sparrows, are dependent on the fen for survival. Other species that thrive in this ecosystem are bumblebees; swallow tail and monarch butterflies, soft shell turtles, great blue herons and beavers. The park district has dedicated resources to continue restoration by removing invasive plants and trees that encroach on the native plants and the fen’s vitality.

Paddlewheel Riverboat History

The boat we are riding on today is a replica of the paddlewheel riverboats from the early eighteen hundreds. These boats were built out of wood and were steam powered for the intent of moving people and cargo during this era. By today’s standards, these types of boats were very unreliable. Wooden hulls were often holed by submerged tree trunks. High-pressure steam boilers frequently exploded with disastrous results. The life expectancy of the early paddlewheel riverboats was only two to three years. The era of the paddlewheel riverboats ended with the development of the transcontinental railroad. After that, the railroad became the major method of transportation in this country. Historic riverboat cruises have been a main attraction in St. Charles for more than seventy-five years. It began when St. Charles resident Chet Anderson purchased his first riverboat, the Honeymoon Queen, for two hundred dollars in nineteen forty-five.  He chartered cruises up and down the river for nearly forty years. His son, Rich Anderson, continued the seasonal cruising family business for another thirty-four years. In two thousand nineteen, the St. Charles Park District made the commitment to continue the legacy. We are honored and excited to carry on this St Charles tradition, offering another recreational activity to enjoy the nature and beauty of the Fox River.

Boy Scout Island

Boy Scout Island, a small park and peninsula located on the west side of the river, was originally deeded to the boy scouts for their needs by Lester Norris in nineteen forty-nine. Twenty years later, the boy scouts transferred the land to the St. Charles Park District for better maintenance and upkeep. The park is most popular for its public boat launch. Some also consider it a great fishing destination.

Hotel Baker

Hotel Baker was once the home of Colonel Edward Baker, a farmer who inherited the fortune of his brother-in-law John Gates who founded Texaco Oil. At the time of the groundbreaking, the site was a garbage dump. Baker envisioned a luxury hotel and told the architects to build a masterpiece. It opened in nineteen twenty-eight. He lost his son and then his wife, and instead of living alone in the house, he moved into the Hotel, where he was always there to welcome people.

Hotel Baker Architecture

Built in Spanish Romantic Revival architecture, the hotel boasted a plethora of modern amenities. It used the power of the Fox River to provide electricity, avoiding power outages and adding to the comfort of its many guests. The hotel featured the Rainbow Room for dancing and dining with a custom pipe organ and two thousand blinking lights under a glass block floor – the first of its kind in the world. The Trophy room is a replicate of a Spanish courtyard complete with balconies, a fountain and simulated sky. And the outside Rose Garden displays more than one hundred rose bushes.

Hotel Baker Legacy

Over the years the hotel has welcomed entertainers and politicians such as Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Presidents John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford, and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. In two thousand fourteen, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg and Jenny McCarthy chose the Hotel Baker to hold their private wedding. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to its architectural and historical significance.

Pottawatomie Tower

Pottawatomie Park’s ornate pavilion and tower reconstruction project featuring peaked roofs, gingerbread trim and latticed arches was completed near the beginning of the twenty first century. These historic elements were rebuilt to resemble the original structure that erected in eighteen ninety-two, near the end of the nineteenth century.