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Cantigny Park (Wheaton IL.)


Chickenpuffball
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Chickenpuffball

Cantigny park is a former estate of Robert R. McCormick, WW1 veteran and former owner of the Chicago tribune. He made his house, gardens and grounds open for the public and left his savings to create a fantastic military museum, house tour and park. There is also a collection of US tanks spanning from WW1 to the Gulf War in the park. It's free to go and only $5 parking. Me and my family went there last week and really enjoyed it, I'd recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century history who is located in the Chicago area.

 

-Nadav

 

Links:

http://www.cantigny.org/

http://www.cantigny.org/visit/Pages/Park%20Map.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._McCormick

 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Awesome Military Museum there too! It is dedicated to the 1st Infantry Division. A hidden gem of a museum very few people in Chicagoland know about!

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  • 1 year later...
jeffs1130

Went to Cantigny today to check out the new layout of the 1st First Division Museum... They redesigned the layout and added a modern warfare section. Honestly was disappointed!

 

They removed a lot of the WWI trench dugout display and the North Africa/Italian campaign sections. They weren't replace with anything, just seems to have been downsized... For what I don't know, didn't see much added in thier place... So that was disappointing!

 

They did add a little more to the Vietnam section, this was always lacking! They still could use a lot more Vietnam artifacts!

 

The modern section which is across the hall in the old open room is interesting! They have virtual reality goggles you put on and go on a simulation of a house raid in Iraq... That was pretty cool! Hurts if you wear glasses like me, smashes them into your face... But was still cool! Also a Tank simulation of Gulf War tank battle was pretty cool! Graphics reminded me of a computer game.

 

Obviously, they could add a lot more to this section however limited space has them restricted... So I guess they did the best they could. I wish they would just knock out some walls and expand! They have the money!! The entire grounds are under construction and they're expanding everywhere, like the visitors center and gardens...

 

All in all not bad, just wish these highly educated Drs, professors, and grads would of put a little more thought into the design... Could of been a lot better! One just needs to look at the USMC Museum for reference.

 

I'd still recommend everyone go check it out if in the area! Maybe I'm just jaded having had the opportunity to seen museums all over the country and would.

 

Happy Travels!

 

-Jeff

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  • 1 month later...

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