Burr Ridge

Download or read book Burr Ridge written by Sharon L. Comstock PhD and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Village of Burr Ridge is aptly named--and not merely for the bur oaks, nor the limestone ridges as the land nears Flagg Creek. Before there was Burr Ridge, frontier German, English, French, Scottish, and Native Americans came to these forests. The Plainfield and Joliet trails were early Native American and frontier routes to and from trading posts, and oral histories recount the Potawatomi stopping near what would become County Line Road. The angled routes of Plainfield Road and Historic Route 66 are silent reminders of these past trails and travelers. In 1917, International Harvester Company opened a research facility along County Line and Plainfield Roads to perfect agricultural equipment, namely the iconic Farmall tractor. This inspired the namesake village, Harvester, in 1956, which was renamed Burr Ridge in 1962. The modern Illinois Interstates 55 and 294 intersect near Burr Ridge, spurring growth. Today, the village has the distinction of being one of the wealthiest communities in the United States.