In the earliest days of Harlem (now known as Forest Park), transportation on the Dummy line, a track of railroad that was laid from 40th Street in Chicago in 1881 that extended west on Randolph Street, through the villages of Oak Park, Harlem and River Forest until it reached the Soo line tracks then curved back eastward on Harrison Street. It stopped at Wisconsin Avenue in Oak Park; Park Avenue in River Forest; and Desplaines Avenue and Harrison St. in Harlem.
Hundreds of Chicagoans used this means of transportation to and from the cemeteries, later the Amusement Park, and people from this area commuted to Chicago. The line was owned by a company headed by H. Vander Cook, of Austin. The steam engine took water through a hose in a ditch along the side of the tracks at Oak Park Avenue and Randolph Street.
Jill Wagner
