Northern Illinois

[Faron]

I wonder you guys from northern Illinois can tell me what I saw along I 39 driving south from Rockford IL last year.  A couple of times  I noticed large  red mounds or hills just off the road a little way.  I wasn't sure if they were a natural feature or man-made. One was fairly near I 39 in a river or large creek bottom, possibly the Illinois River. I thought at first it was a very large pile of red potash, but kind of doubt that is correct. I was towing a tile plow at the time, and couldn't do too much looking around.  I don't remember just where the other one was, but it looked like it might be a natural feature.  Anybody know what these were?

[Furby]

I've seen them myself.
Most cases it looked like they were rather close to older farms, but much taller then a house from what I could tell.
I'd like to hear what they are as well.

[OneWithWood]

I can't speak for IL but the ones I ahve seen in Indiana are very large piles of mulch.

[low_48]

I'm a newbie to this site, looking over lots of old posts. Maybe you are still wondering what those red hills are. Those are mining spoils from old underground coal mines. None of the mines were very large in that area, so not very big spoil hills. I think those are really high in iron oxide or something like that, because nothing grows on them. Here's a couple of history bits;
A 1909 coal mine disaster back in the tiny town of Cherry, just north of LaSalle, was one of the worst in U.S. history, killing 259. The story-the mine caught fire trapping more than 450 men-- was horrific. It prompted the Illinois State legislature follow the lead of British Parliament, which had recently passed a worker's compensation act. The United Mine Workers dedicated a memorial at a cemetery here in 1911.

In 1865 well drillers hit a seam of coal 65 feet below the surface that was low in sulfur and easy to excavate. The find launched a mining boom that turned northeastern Illinois into the largest coal-producing region in the nation.

In the 1920s surface mining became easier and more profitable than underground methods and by the 1930s virtually all of the underground mines in the Prairie Parklands had closed. By the mid-1940s, there was only one large surface mine operating here; it closed in 1974.

Rich

[Tom]

That was an informative first post, lower-48.

welcome to the Forestry Forum 

[Furby]

 8) 8) 8)
Thanks for the info!

Oh, and welcome!

[OneWithWood]

Yes, thanks for the correction of my assumption 

Welcom aboard.  We have a few other illustrious members from the Peoria area.

[Faron]

Lower 48, Thanks for the information on those piles.  Somehow I have managed not to have checked back on this all this time. :D  How about the windmill farm along that same interstate?  None of them were turning when I passed by.  Is it operational, not on line yet, or what?

[wesdor]

Regarding the windmill farm.  We went by there on the way to  Rockford on New Year's Eve and some of them were turning.  I don't get by there too frequently, but it has been working for more than a year.  From my observation, I don't see them turning all that often - even when a good wind is blowing.  It is still a bit of a mystery to me (why they aren't turning all the time there is an appropriate wind).