I live less than two miles from Swallow Cliff. It is a forest preserve built on a hill where they built some toboggan slides back in the 20's (I think it was to practice for an Olympic event back then - google Swallow Cliff forest preserve in Cook County, IL).
It was a HUGE toboggan slide built on the side of a hill. We walk there some times through the horse trails in the forest preserve next to our house.
If you had your own tobaggon, you could sled there for free. If you didn't have one, there was a log cabin at the bottom of the hill where you could rent one and had a fire place to warm up at.
It was run by the Cook County Forest Preserve. There were 6 lanes and there was a control tower at the top where they controlled the gates to let you down the hill. The slides were wood planks on the bottom which would get covered in snow and ice, with cement walls to keep you in the lane. Then at the bottom you would go under a bridge, where after you came to a stop could walk between the lanes and up stairs to get off the "field" so the next people can go.
I remember going on them when I was a kid and in high school. They were a blast. Best hill around.
Now since I moved back in 08, they have taken them down. There was a fundraiser group that had raised half the money needed to restore them, but they weren't allowed to do that because of the liability....
So they destroyed the slides, and then planted trees on the top half of the hill and then allowed sledding on the bottom half (still a great ride). My youngest son used to sled there.
As of last year, they are closed and won't let anyone go down there. They just use the stairway for exercise. The workout guru's say that it's better than a stairmaster and free... they like to carry pebbles up the stairs to keep track of how many times that they made the climb. There are 124 flagstone steps to get to the top of the hill - quite a workout.
Here are some pictures of when the slides were there:
Here's from the bottom showing the bridge and stairs and you can see the control tower at the top of the hill if you look...
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Here's what it looks like from the top just off the side of the steps:
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Here's looking up from the bottom:
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Here's a side view of the starting gates at the top:
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Here's the control tower at the top:
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Here's a helicopter view of the top of the slides and control tower (not my helicopter):
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Here's another view from the bottom from behind the bridge:
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Here's looking up from in front of the bridge:
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Here's one in summer looking up the hill:
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Here's a perspective of looking up the stairs to the top:
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