Oglesby, Illinois — Cement, Deer Park, and the Southern Edge

Oglesby grew up around cement. Lehigh's plant fed the construction boom that built the Illinois Valley's industrial spine — and the boundaries of Matthiessen State Park sit just south of town.

F.W. Matthiessen — the German immigrant zinc baron and five-term mayor of LaSalle — donated the Deer Park estate for public use during his lifetime. It was renamed Matthiessen State Park in 1943, twenty-five years after his funeral, when the entire community of LaSalle suspended business from eleven a.m. to noon.

The southern edge of Little Reno is quieter than the northern edge — but the same families and the same money built it.