Books published by Arcadia Publishing Library Editions

Situated just outside of Chicago, the bustling suburb of Oak Lawn was incorporated in 1909, although its rich history can be traced back to the 1830s. For decades, the village remained a thinly populated farming community. However, like many towns across America, the early 20th century brought steady growth, and the years following World War II saw an unprecedented population explosion. With thousands of new residents arriving every year, numerous homes, churches, and schools were constructed, forever changing Oak Lawn. In the face of immense growth and other adversities, such as the 1967 tornado, the village continued to prosper and mature. The images in this book act as a window to its past, highlighting many of the people, places, and events that have made Oak Lawn the dynamic community it is today.

The area that now encompasses Spink County was virgin prairie grassland 140 years ago, inhabited by Native American Sioux who survived by hunting the millions of roaming buffalo. The land was surveyed a few years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 in accordance with the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Homestead Act of 1862. Within 25 years, the land was completely covered with farms, ranches, and towns and connected to the rest of the United States by a grid of railroads. Thanks to the then new science of photography, the amazing transformation of vast, treeless, sparsely populated prairie into a completely settled agricultural community is recorded here in wonderful and fascinating detail. Spink County is the pictorial record of an amazing historical movement.