Cantigny Park: Special, accessible, available

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Cantigny Park is a bucolic 500-acre park in Wheaton and is the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publishers of the Chicago Tribune.

Photo of recent “A French Connection” event at Cantigny with the French Counsul from Paris residing in Chicago. Submitted photo

In the late 1800s the land was acquired as a country estate which Medill called Red Oaks. In 1896-97 Medill built a 35-room mansion and today it is a historic house museum which is open to the public. There are guided tours given and visitors can see how the wealthy lived in those times. The kitchen is complete with a dumb-waiter.

The estate passed to Medill’s grandson Colonel McCormick. The Colonel had served in WWI and saw action at the Battle of Cantigny. When he returned home, he renamed the estate in honor of the battle. The Colonel had no children so he left his fortune to establish the McCormick Charitable Trust. He directed that Cantigny should be transformed into a park for public use.

On site is the First Division Museum which has exhibits and artifacts chronicling the First Division’s service history in WWI, WWII, and later U.S. wars. Outside the museum is the area’s largest collection of tanks and artillery pieces and visitors are allowed to climb on them. Its Research Center is used by authors, scholars and teachers because it contains more than 10,000 works on military history.

Cantigny Park attracts approximately 400,000 visitors yearly. Concerts, lectures, workshops, festivals and other events are offered each year. The French Connection event, now named Voyage to France, was held in July this Summer on a beautiful day.

Ornamental landscapes and gardens cover approximately 30 acres. The Rose Garden is especially lovely in Summer. The Idea Garden was designed to educate and inspire home gardeners. The horticulture department offers floral workshops, gardening lectures, free tours and monthly bird walks. In 2022 they hosted Albrijes with colorful paper mache animals as creatures of a dream world. Fantastic!

Cantigny Golf Club was opened in 1989 and Golf Digest named Cantigny the “Best New Public Course in America.” There are 27 scenic holes and a nine-hole Youth Links. A full-service clubhouse offers dining and banquet facilities.

The Park offers areas to picnic with tables available and restroom facilities close by. The Park is a short distance from Aurora and there is usually a $5 parking fee except on special occasions when it is $10 to enter. It remains a quiet interlude to a busy day and close to home. The Park does not seem as commercialized as the Morton Arboretum and is a much more reasonable cost to enter. Nature sounds abound and the giant oaks give witness to a time long past of quiet contemplation and genteel moderation.

Colonel McCormick and his first wife, Amy, are buried on the grounds near the mansion. He passed this life in 1955 at the age of 74. The McCormick Foundation has granted more than $1.5 billion to deserving agencies here and across America.

Visitors can plan a late Summer sojourn to Cantigny, pack a picnic, and enjoy all that Cantigny Park has to offer.

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