The first gravel pit opened by CS&C Rwy. was on the north side of the railyard on land owned by the Railroad in 1889, directly in line of the extension of Santa Fe Avenue, which was a dead end at the south line of the ROW, just as it is today. The CS&C Rwy. was the Illinois arm of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad (ATSF RR). At that time, Illinois required all railroads to have their originating or terminating point to be an Illinois Corporation. From the year 1889, gravel was to become a very heavy-weight industry and a vital element in the success of the City of Chillicothe. 

As the CS&C Rwy. grew, the demand for gravel for other purposes followed suit. The City of Chillicothe had its own terrible experience on Halloween Night in 1890 when hostile fire in the Hallcock Livery Stable on Pine Street set fire to the business district, wiping out the north one-and-a-half blocks of the buildings on Second Street. All new construction had to be made of “fire resistive” materials. Bricks and concrete became the materials of choice. Building contractors were quick to adapt to those new conditions. Highway engineers were also using gravel to build roads and streets (Benedict Street for certain) with gravel. Cement added to gravel gave us concrete. The expansion of the gravel mining industry was set. 

How many gravel pits are there around Chillicothe? The number of open pits has remained steady for nearly half a century; some being reopened after long periods of non-use. The second pit opened by the CS&C Rwy. was also on the north side of the right of way, but west of the train roundhouse. The roundhouse was located at the west end of railyard west of Benedict Street. That pit is still in use, primarily for sand and is the location of the office of the Galena Road Gravel Company, the current owner of the original railroad mines. 

The CS&G Rwy./ATSF mine (1889-1925} was bought and operated by the McGrath Sand and Gravel Company of Lincoln, Illinois in 1925 who sold it to The Martin Marietta Gravel Company of Maryland in 1963. In 1983 Martin Marietta sold it to the current owner. 

Other companies operating mines here were the Chillicothe Gravel Company (Wm. & Gordon Taylor), The Peoria Sand and Gravel Company, The McElwee and Rogy Gravel Company of Peoria, (Htamm’s Holiday Harbor site), Jacob Harmon Gravel Company, (Peoria Casting Club site) Chillicothe Sand and Gravel Company, Peoria Washed Sand and Gravel Company (Jake Irions), East Peoria Sand & Gravel Company, Lake Erie Sand & Gravel Company and most recently joining that list is the FLM Corporation who mines the pit on the west side of Chillicothe south of Truitt Ave. and also operates the concrete company on Old Galena Road near Caterpillar. Clear details of the companies who operated here in the 1930s – 1960s have been difficult to sort out. They worked three pits located north of Moffitt Street between Fourth Street and the Illinois River including what is now Moffitt Park, formerly the Hurff Farm. 

You probably have noticed the term “washed sand and gravel” is frequently used in a company’s name. I checked with geologists who explained that it was to create multiple kinds of aggregate that could be separated and then mixed in ways that produce very solid construction materials. Those mixes can be made into concrete and with the addition of cement to make blocks, basement walls, patios, and sidewalks, as-well-as “road mix” that can be the base for highways. I’ve seen those all my life and took them for granted but now have a better appreciation of that whole industry. That didn’t make me any less angry when a small rock fell from a moving gravel truck, bounced on its cousin concrete roadway and struck my car’s windshield. Those geologists also told me the rocks being gouged out of the stone under Chillicothe comes from the Precambrian layer that is only 1.5 to 1 billion years old. They say the layer is more than four hundred feet thick in some areas.