Sauk Trail Forest Preserve Parking

About forestry service, 60411, Chicago Heights, IL, US, Illinois

Chicago Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,480 at the 2020 census. A southern suburb in the Chicago metropolitan area, its nicknames include "The Crossroads of the Nation" and "Da Heights”. == History == The first recorded settlement by non-native Americans of the area that would become Chicago Heights occurred in 1833 when Absalom Wells built a cabin on the ridge above Thorn Creek. By the 1840s, a small rural community known as Thorn Grove had been formed, centered around a Presbyterian church. In the 1890s, a group of Chicago developers led by Charles Wacker formed the Chicago Heights Land Association to create an outer-ring industrial suburb of Chicago. They convinced many businesses to construct factories in the new development, including Inland Steel, the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, and the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company, among many others. The newly-created factories and plants drew large numbers of Italian, Polish, Slovak, Lithuanian, Irish, and Black workers to the East Side and Hill neighborhoods. A downtown area formed and became a center of activity for the surrounding region. In 1916, the Lincoln Highway Association was persuaded to route the country's first transcontinental highway through the city, leading the community to be dubbed "the crossroads of the nation." During the Prohibition era, the city was home to many bootleggers.