One-Mile Track

It's possible that the biggest race ever held at the One Mile track was not a horse race, but an automobile race. The event took place in August 1913 and made headlines in the the Lake County Independent: "Biggest Race Carnival of Year at Libertyville,” “Speed Kings of Country to Race at Libertyville” and “World’s…

In the 1890s and early 1900s, rising population in the Chicago made the countryside more appealing. Chicago business leaders looked to rural areas within commuting distance of the city to build country homes for their families and indulge their passion for farm pursuits, including raising horses. Chicago restauranteur John R. Thompson and railroad executive J.W.…

If thoroughbred racing is the Sport of Kings, harness racing, also known as trotting, could be called the sport of the people. Anyone could train their horse to trot and the cost of entry to the sport was much lower than that of thoroughbred racing. In harness racing, instead of a rider atop a horse,…

A few years ago I came across a quote about Samuel Insull that struck me: "The town of Libertyville, Ill. was a one-man town, and Samuel Insull once a powerful utilities magnate, was the man. Now that he has been expatriated there is a gap in the community where he was once hailed as the…

In October I delivered a presentation entitled “1914: Libertyville 100 Years Ago”.  At that program, an audience member asked me if the Libertyville One-Mile Track was in operation during the time. It was, but there were not many articles in the newspaper about the race track in 1914, so I had not included it in…