Bailey Falls Oglesby Illinois

and Buffalo Pit in Utica Illinois

COMING THIS FALL

Bailey Falls The True Story

and

BUFFALO PIT

What You Didn't Hear On TMZ

This is the story the history of Bailey Falls and Buffalo Pit. My photos and videos only go back to the 1980's. This story goes back to 1890. It all started in two small towns out near Ottawa Illinois. The the small towns of Oglesby and Utica to be exact. Bailey Falls is on Bailey Creek which flows to the Vermilion River all of which was within a big cement quarry operation across the river from Matthiessen State Park. The quarry portion was no longer being used and it was ATV 4x4 OHV heaven on earth. For those lucky enough to know about the place. It was legendary.

Okay what is the official Oglesby timeline here-

The Marquette Cement Manufacturing Company owned and operated its primary quarry in Oglesby, Illinois, from 1898 until 1982.

• The Original Marquette Quarry (1898 – 1982): Marquette Cement was officially incorporated in 1898 and took over the initial 1891–1892 industrial property. They directly owned and extracted limestone from this original quarry site until 1982, when Marquette Cement was sold to Lone Star Industries.

• The Neighboring Lehigh Quarry (1964 – 1982): Oglesby's other major producer, the Lehigh Portland Cement Company, shut down its plant in 1963–1964. Marquette Cement purchased the adjacent Lehigh quarry in 1964 to expand its own raw material supply, owning it until the 1982 corporate transition.

The quarries continued operating under subsequent parent corporations, including German Dyckerhoff AG (1999) and Italian Buzzi Unicem USA (2004).

This 1930's photo looks just like the Post Card. It's a early 4x4 in what looks like a 1920's Model T Ford Coupe.

You can see the old promo film on those Model T's, it shows (brags) these are "Off Road" vehicles. Well yeah because just about everything was off road. Good roads were scarce to non-existant. Kinda funny this 2 wheel drive clunker was a serious 4x4. And it was.The film shows hillclimbing, going up big obstacles, down steep slopes. It's so lightweight and rickety it just bounces off and over obstacles.

This is the 1980's. One of the many times I was stuck. In the quarry. Trying to find new ways to get to Bailey Falls. This was probably 1985. I had just arrived and I had a unopened cold 12 Pack of Beer. I told the girls wait here. I took the beer and walked looking for other 4x4's. I ran into a group O them I said I got a cold 12 pack for anyone who can pull me out. .

I have more photos and video too. Stay Tuned and Check back in a month or two. There is a slice of the Lone Star Quarry on the other side of the Vermilion River. The iconic "Iron Bridge" crossed over to that side. Over there was what we called "Caves" but were actually abandoned Mining Tunnels. We went in there but it got dark quick and there was water as well. It was a bit spooky.

Here is a video from 1993 going into one of the so-called Caves err uh mining tunnels. This one in the video is on the Falls side of the Vermilion River. My 1989 Yamaha XT600 Enduro is basically a bigass honkin' dirt bike. 600 is a beast, she could take three people up hills. Here we have three of us Me driving, Nandor in the middle, and Mike D on the back with the video camera. I told those guys i was going to put the video on ESPN. Nandor proceeded to spout out a X Rated narration Sound Track in his attempt to as he stated, "I jus wanna make sure this is not on ESPN."

Keep in mind this was 1993 YouTube was not invented yet, the whole internet wasn't even invented when we shot this video. This video sat dormant in the Bogart 9 Vaults for 25 years. All the Bogart 9 videos are coming here soon be forewarned.

In the 1990's I had a Public Access TV Show called, "The Wheelie Circus" and it was mostly based on trips to Buffalo Rock, Lone Star Quarry and Bailey Falls.

In the beginning of the video you can see Bailey Falls as we frolic in the water. The people are a group of Chicago Video Game Animators known as RUN N GUN. They were pioneers in early video game production. They had a famous video Game on the 3DO format. Nintendo and SEGA killed 3DO and everybody else in the famous Game Console Wars of the 90's. Lookup the video Game its memory is still alive today as a comic "Duelin' Firemen" those are them heavy people under Bailey Falls. On the XT600 Mike the Camera guy and Nandor smokng the pipe, those two are Run And Gun Film Production guys.

On this clip in the beginning we're jumping off the side cliff to the water below. On top I'm lighting off Fireworks as it was 4th of July that day. We also celebrated the beginning of the Run and Gun video game, "Duelin' Firemen." After that Opening then we get on the XT600 and go into the mining tunnel as the "Three Man Cave Enduro." More like the Three Stooges on one dirt bike. I told my hapless passengers we were to find the "Secret Well."

I made the "Weasels Ripped My Flesh T-Shirt" and the custom "Cloud Pants" via bleached Jeans. This is my dramatic acting debut. I'm a Method Actor. I act and this is my method.

Roy Plotnick is a Paleontologist, geologist, ecologist, educator. Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Author of Explorers of Deep Time. He says the Oglesby quarry has abundant, "Brachiopods." What the hell are Brachiopods you might ask? Me too.

Brachiopods are marine animals belonging to the phylum Brachiopoda, characterized by having two hard shells (valves) on their upper and lower surfaces. They are often referred to as "lamp shells" and have existed for at least 550 million years, with a rich fossil record primarily from the Paleozoic era. Oh boy who knew.

Professor Roy says, "One of the greatest challenges I face in teaching paleontology in Chicago is finding a place to bring my classes on field trips. I also am frequently asked by members of the public “where can I take my kids to collect fossils?” Unfortunately, there are currently are very limited number of places in Northern Illinois to collect fossils. There are only a few small roadcuts. Most exposures of bedrock are in commercial quarries, which are generally off limit to members of the public, including groups from schools and universities. Not long ago I found myself scrambling at the last minute to find a site to bring a field trip, because the quarry management rescinded our permission to visit.

When I first taught paleontology in 1982, I was advised to take my class to the Lone Star Quarry in Oglesby, Illinois. It was a fantastic place to go. The quarry mined the La Salle Limestone member of the Bond Formation (Pennsylvanian, about 300 million years old) for cement production. Also exposed at the quarry were red and gray shales above the limestone, and gray and thin black shale layers below it. The rocks in the quarry were extremely fossiliferous. The limestone contains numerous and diverse crinoids, snails, corals, brachiopods and rare trilobites; shark teeth and other vertebrate remains are not uncommon.

These fossils weather out and were easy to collect on the quarry floor. We collected so many specimens of the brachiopod Composita that I can give them away to children. The black shale contains orbiculoid brachiopods, shark teeth and fish scales, and sometimes a complete fish. An amphibian bone has also been recovered there. Prior to 2008, the quarry was a popular site for both college classes and amateur collectors.

Prof. Roy says, "Unfortunately, the quarry was purchased about two decades ago (1987) by Italian Cement company Buzzi UniCem USA, who eventually made the site off-limits." Prof. Roy it sure wasn't off limits to the 4x4 and moto people! We had a blast in there. My first trip was 1985. I think someone at Buffalo Rock told me about Bailey Falls and that's how I found the place. We drove 75 miles from Villa Park to get out there.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources acquired the Lone Star Quarry in 2018 and added 2,629 acres to the Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Park complex, increasing protected open space by more than 50 percent. The IDNR purchased the property for $11,050,000 from Lone Star Industries Inc. and plans to restore habitat and develop trails, campgrounds, and recreational access, though full public access to the former quarry area has not yet been restored.

Myself, along with Dave Carlson of the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois (ESCONI; a long-established avocational society) and Mike Phillips of the Illinois Valley Community College, which is close to quarry, had proposed back in 2018 to the IDNR that a portion of the new acquisition be set aside as a “fossil park.” We were supported by a large group of professional and amateur paleontologists who were committed. The effort was also supported by Illinois State Rep. Lance Yednock, D-Ottawa, who introduced the legislation (House Bill 2789) to have IDNR designate the site as a fossil park.

Wow a Fossil Park how cool is that. We moto'ed over Dinosaur bones?

What is a fossil park? Fossil parks were sites where members of the public can observe, collect, and usually keep the fossils they find. There were currently only about ten fossil parks in the United States.

It was planned that the fossil park be used for geology classes at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Illinois State University, and Illinois Valley Community College. Field trips could include stops at Matthiessen, Buffalo Rock, and Starved Rock State Parks in order to describe the geologic history and structures of the area, such as the LaSalle Anticline. The Lone Star quarry preserves key evidence for this structure.

What is the LaSalle Anticline? Buffalo Rock? Thatsa moto park opening this Sunday I just called them yesterday.

Alvin Harper, the park superintendent back in 2022: “The Matthiessen Annex project Capital Development Board project is still years away from official development.”

Mike Phillips and I visited the site with the park superintendent, park education coordinator, and Renee Clary (Mississippi State University expert on fossil parks around the U.S.). The site remains in excellent condition and the fossils are abundant!

Much of the credit belongs to Mike Phillips, who has done most of the interaction with the various stakeholders in the state government to make this project a happen.

Wowza whaozah 11 million dollars for the quarry. If I had that type dough that quarry today would be called, "Bailey Falls Bogart 9 Private Park Do Not Call Me." I'd build a stone castle in there and rent it as a movie set.

“Well, here it is,” said a Kenosha businessman who made it to the place now known as Oglesby in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. He was with the Kenosha Coal Company setting up operations in the untouched area south of LaSalle and the Illinois River. The company was small. It consisted of Irish, Scottish, and English workers. After one year, a shaft collapsed. It looked like all was doomed for this operation, but they did not give up hope. The company sent Mr. Thatcher Tucker Bent in to run the area in 1867. Mr. Bent made working conditions better. He gave them better wages and workers’ compensation due to the dangers of coal mine working. He soon started a Sunday school held in a company shed and a small grocery store.

Cement has been an industry growing and changing in Oglesby for over 100 years. In 1891, the cement industry in Oglesby started. Although the land was bought in 1891 the company didn’t start operations until 1892. It would be a hundred years before most of us got to go Off Road there.

In 1898, the company became Marquette Cement Company. Oglesby had two major cement companies. The other major cement company was the Chicago Cement Company, which later became Lehigh Portland Cement Company. Lehigh stopped operations in 1964 and its quarry was bought by Marquette. You can still see some of Lehigh’s old buildings off Walnut Street at the edge of town in Oglesby. 

It was a dry summer day so we thought lets go in there. Dry so that you COULD go in there. There were some dry spots with tire tracks to get in and thats good enough for me so we went in. The swamp in certain places had those Cattails, big ones 5 feet high, in the open area was "dried up puzzle pieces" you know that cool looking cracked earth pattern like puzzle pieces looking surface. You know everyone knows-

We was laughing having fun, it turns out driving on that cracked earth stuff whipping through 5 foot tall Cattails doing donuts and wide circles is a total blast. Until it isn't. On one of the wide circles the truck just slowed down down an down into slow motion like by a force field of sludge until we were all 4 tires just spinning in place. I got out and wondered why the hell we were stuck because it was not even 6 inches deep. Underneath the clay pieces was like pure ice. You couldda prolly ice skated on it the texture was so icy wet clay.

A serious problem with Buffalo Pit and Bailey Falls was “wet clay.” When its dry its a beautiful hard surface, but when its wet,,,it needn’t be deep for you to be immobilized in sludgy ice. Yer big bad 4x4 tires and yer big ole motor, helpless useless in wet clay. And I had neither. Our Go-To trick that always worked was Jack Up the tire put sticks logs under the tire, go forth do it again, drive out. I tried that. The truck did not go up the Jack went down. Each pump it went down further into the greasy sludge. Needless to say this was very discouraging. I said, "Jim we have a serious problem here." I should have said, "Dammit Jim Do Something" of course we were not the USS Enterprise we were alone on a strange planet. No backup 4x4's. No tools. Of course we only had five bux left because we spent all our money on beer. And even if the Jack did go up there was no sticks no logs nothing to put under the tires it was a bloody swamp! Smart people put board bricks or blocks in the back of their vehicle. But all that or even a electric winch would not haved saved us, we had the shitty little winch, there was nothing to winch it too!

And of course it was 4pm towards the end of the day, and it was a Sunday. Cells phones didn't exist and we were 75 miles from home in Villa Park. This was 1988-ish. WHAT more could happen!! A fuggin rain storm!! it did not rain thank Jesus. We just started walking toward the road its getting dark like a David Lynch movie. We hit the road and right down the Pike was the Starve Rock Marina. We walk in the Bar like zombies,.

I asked the bartender I said, "Hey our 4x4 is stuck in the swamp across the street you got any ideas" or something like that I had said. To our surprise he said, "well i know some guys in a 4-Wheel Drive Club" yeah yeah keep going "I can give them a call but you know its Sunday their day off for partying, I can give them a call if you want." He calls them up. He's talking he says they're partying, drinking,.. then he says they wanna know where you are stuck. I described pretty much the exact location. The bartender is relaying this conversation. They said, Oh oh you should never ever go in there they were all laughing, they thought it was really funny. This made us very nervous. Probably about to faint I dunno, then the guy on the phone says stay at the bar we'll come over.

Whoally schmokels there is a God.

It's totally dark out at this point, we're waiting out front of Starve Rock Marina and it wasn't long. A stock looking Ford Bronco pulls up., skinny little tires. Behind him is a decent size Ford F250 with some nice bangin size knobby tires. And behind him was a gigantic Monster Truck looking thing. These trucks was full of drunk guys laughing, it appeared as though our nights peril was their nights Entertainment. I don't think it was the Brad Carter 4x4 group but it might have been? This was 5 years before Brad Carter pulled us outta Bailey Falls swamp. They said hop in lets go to your vehicle.

They knew exactly the deal. They stopped. The middle truck had a Spotlight (thats kit!) he shown the spotlight across the dirt you could see my gray Toyota sitting there, it was a ways out. They would not go out there. Thats when it dawned on me how dopey we were. The little Bronco charged full blast straight towards my truck. He made it about halfway before the ice sludge stopped him cold. He got out and met another guy carrying two thick wide long Tow straps. They hooked one strap from the front hook of the Bronco to the back of my Toyota, the other strap they hooked to the back of the Bronco, that was connected to the hook on the front of,, I can't remember if it was the F250 or the bigger truck??? I couldn't think that many tow straps deep my mind was frazzled at that point. All I know is the three of us all started our motors and we all did reverse at the same time. Slowly, with no trouble all three vehicles came out of the muck and murk.

Everyone is laughing joking, they thought this was jus plain ole fun. He says we'll give a you a good deal 150 dollars because they knew no Tow Truck was gonna get you outta there. I was fine with 150 I was ready to pay more than that with beer and wings too,, but,, We only had 5 bux between us. I says to the guy in a desperate tone, I will give you my wallet with drivers license everything and drive back to Villa Park and drive all the way back with the dough as you hold my wallet collateral. He wanted nothing to do with waiting for all that folly, he says tell you what. I'll keep your wallet and drivers license and you Mail the money and I will Mail your wallet back, GO, go home now. I'm sure he could tell we frazzled. We took off. I sent him the money and he sent the wallet back, in the Mail.

Now how cool of a story is that? If anybody knows of this Buffalo Pit 4x4 Club Any of those guys, I want to buy them all a drink. Someone must know someone out there???

Speaking of Buffalo Pit:

The 1992 Chicago Reader Feature article has the most comprehensive, narrative breakdown of the entire history (up to that point) of moto action Buffalo Pit in a famous investigative arts feature "Art under fire: tourist attraction closed due to flying bullets".

Yeah flying bullets I told ya it was nuts out there. We were so broke back in the 1980's we had no money to go in the front Entrance to Buffalo Pit where the Gate and the Gun Shop was. Roger's "management" was sporadic and collecting the entrance fee was sporadic, often there was nobody there at the entrance gate.

We prefferred the back area anyways so we would go in over the RR Tracks to get in the far back end. There was a huge Pit area in the front and a Pit area in the back, in-between was a long ride windy ride most folks never went back in that far. You generally had to know where you're going and what you're doing to make it.

This Chicago Reader article provides detail on Roger "Sparky" Fullmer, his private collection of machine guns that he rented out to patrons, and how his ammunition manufacturing business clashed with the state park. It specifically documents the bizarre historical conflict where Fullmer's range patrons were accidentally shooting at visitors viewing the multi-million dollar Effigy Tumuli earthwork sculptures next door, leading right up to the 1988 explosion that killed Roger. This needs to be a documentary. I'm working on it.

Here is the Chicago Reader article for your entertainment. Funny it says, "Most Ottawans saw the place as worthless" "when it rained it was toxic run-off." Well, don't go there when it rains you fool. The townspeople ignored the place. How more perfect can you get! We brought beer you could do whatever you wanted. No insurance regulations no restrictions no wildlife to worry about. We never saw any signs of life hahh it was a moonscape. I didn't know it was toxic, but hey the last thing you want is to make contact with the dirt, like a face plant. You needed skills to ride those hills.

contemporary art, gunfire, toxic waste, and public safety

add in dirt bikes and it sounds like a party to me


If you were over there looking at them, you can’t tell what they are,” says Evelyn Muffler, Paul Smith’s sister, who operates the Buffalo Pit and Range with him. “They’re piles of dirt,” says Smith. “Nobody goes there. It’s a joke. The only people who ever went there were dirt bikers.”

I did not know about the railraod "Split Tunnel" on the west side of Utica.

The Split Rock Tunnel was constructed as part of the Chicago and Rock Island Rail Road Company’s expansion westward from Chicago. In 1851, planning began for a railroad roughly paralleling the Illinois & Michigan (I&M) Canal from Joliet to LaSalle. A sandstone bluff east of LaSalle, later called Split Rock, posed a significant obstacle. To avoid encroaching on canal property, the railroad opted to construct a short tunnel through the bluff rather than remove it entirely.

The tunnel was a short passage through Sandstone, designed to allow the railroad to pass under the bluff while maintaining the canal’s integrity. The area had previously been blasted during the 1840s for the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which split the bluff into two sections, giving it the name Split Rock. In 1882, a second track was added by removing part of the bluff south of the tunnel to accommodate increased rail traffic.

The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad CR&P was also known as the Rock Island Line. The railroad began as the Rock Island and La Salle Rail Road Company, chartered in Illinois on February 27, 1847, to link the town of Rock Island with La Salle and Chicago. It was reorganized as the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad in 1851, and construction started in Chicago on October 1, 1851. The first train ran between Chicago and Joliet October 1852, and the line reached Rock Island on February 22, 1854, becoming the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.

Expansion and Growth

In 1866, the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad acquired the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad, forming the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company. The railroad expanded steadily through construction and acquisitions, reaching Kansas City by 1879 via an operating agreement with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad.

The Rock Island Line became famous in American culture, inspiring the folk song “Rock Island Line”, first written in 1929 and later popularized by Johnny Cash in 1970.

The railroad carried both freight and passengers, with agriculture forming a significant part of its business. Despite its fame, the company faced operational challenges, including competition with other railroads and financial difficulties.

Decline and Liquidation

The Rock Island experienced financial instability in the 20th century, undergoing reorganizations in 1917 and 1947. By the 1960s, the railroad was in decline, and merger attempts with other railroads failed. Bankruptcy proceedings began in March 1975, and although federal loan guarantees temporarily kept it running, a federal judge ordered its liquidation in January 1980. Its assets were sold off piecemeal in the early 1980s.

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad played a pivotal role in connecting the Midwest to the Mississippi River and beyond, influencing regional development and American rail culture and motorcycling/Off Roading in the LaSalle Utica Oglesby area. Its rich history reflects both the ambition and challenges of partying in cement quarries in the 19th- and 20th-century along with railroading in the United States.

On another clip in the beginning we're jumping off the side cliff to the water below.

That's the late Brian Rullman of Run And Gun Productions.

He was a VJ DJ creator inventor Visual Effects Jedi.

He brought his BMX bike And he uh. Road off a cliff. Doesn't hurt him.

One of the short videos of Bailey Falls is 16mm.
Run And Gun had a old Russian 16mm movie camera and shot some film.

This surely has to be the only 16mm film clip in history of Baily Falls.