EAST SIDE — A 177-year-old monument has had three of its four brass plaques stolen — but officials shouldn't race to replace them, a local historian says.
The Illinois-Indiana State Boundary Marker has faced an uncertain future since the State Line Generating Plant was sold and demolition of the building began in 2012. Rod Sellers, director of the Southeast Chicago Historical Society, said he thinks the plaques were nabbed by scavengers over the summer. One said "Boundary of Illinois" while another said "Boundary of Indiana." The third noted its location.
"It's probably not a good idea to replace them because scavengers are going to come down here and take them down anyway," Sellers said.
Sellers had feared the monument would face vandalism once the plant's demolition began because the marker would no longer have security. A fence surrounds the marker, but a gatehouse that stood nearby is empty, Sellers said.
Replacing the plaques would take a joint effort between Illinois and Indiana agencies since the monument straddles the dividing line between the states, Sellers said. But, it's not clear who is responsible for the monument, said Tiffany Tolbert, director of Indiana Landmarks Northwest Field Office. The candidates: Illinois, Indiana and the company that owns the land, Beemsterboer Slag Corp.
Representatives of Beemsterboer did not respond to requests for comment, and Tolbert and Lisa DiChiera, Illinois Landmarks Director of Advocacy, said they didn't know the status of the state boundary marker.
Despite the thefts, Sellers said the monument "doesn't look too bad" now.
The 15-foot-tall sandstone obelisk was constructed in 1838, according to the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. The marker likely was erected after Congress ordered a resurveying of the state boundary line. It has been moved several times since, and now rests just outside the generating plant.
The Landmarks Commission called the pre-Chicago Fire monument "a significant physical reminder of early nineteenth-century efforts to survey and establish state boundaries out of the vast Northwest Territory.”
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