Park series: Secrets buried beneath park

ANTIOCH - Below 60 feet of dirt at the Tim Osmond Sports Complex on Depot Street in Antioch, lay buried, under a hill, the bones of a mastodon.
Unbeknown to some who visit the facility, named after former State Rep. Tim Osmond, who died in 2002, the femur and vertebrae of this extinct animal were dug up in the late 1960s.

A tusk was found, too, said Antioch resident Stephen Young, who got to keep the vertebrae he helped identify and later donated it to the Lakes Region Historical Society Museum on Main Street. It’s encased there now next to a human vertebrae.

“This gives people a better idea of the animal’s considerable size,” said Ainsley Wonderling, the museum’s executive director.

That tusk Young found with Antioch resident John Horak, proved to be too difficult to take out and still lies buried there.

“It must have been 8 feet long and we were very careful but it fell from the bucket as we were trying to lift it,” Young said.

Young hadn’t expected to make that find since the excavation was not of an investigative nature but instead to cap the town’s landfill. He found the vertebrae among the garbage. More bones of ancient creatures probably still lie beneath the sports complex, but they were not removed. Instead, the former landfill needed to be cleaned for future use.

According to EPA records, about 2 million tons of industrial and household solid waste had been dumped at the landfill between 1963 and 1984.

In 1990, after contaminants were found in the groundwater nearby, it was declared a Superfund area, which required a cleanup. In 2003, the former city dump was deemed clean and the Environmental Protection Agency declared it ready for use.

Antioch Township Supervisor Steve Smouse, said that in a small section of the land, which borders the Antioch Community High School off McMillan Road, methane from the underground landfill is now being burned to generate electricity and heat for the school.

Liquid waste gets taken out by Waste Management periodically, he added.

Nick Boris and Julia Applegren of Antioch didn’t know of mastodons and landfills atop what is now the sports complex.

They played a game of disc golf there on a nice day in early August.

“This a big, spacious park,” Applegren said. “They seem to keep putting more in it.”

Smouse said phase two of the park, which recently finished, included the addition of a second baseball field, a soccer field, bathrooms, a concession stand and electricity and water.

Those amenities were added to the tot lot playground, two football fields, baseball field, disc golf course and parking lot.

Combined with Antioch Community High School's McMillan Field, there are 160 acres of land.
Smouse said phase three will likely include additional football or soccer fields.

That’s what friends and family of the late state representative, Tim Osmond, say he would have wanted.

“He would’ve loved it,” said State Rep. JoAnn Osmond, who was appointed to replace her late husband in the 61st District after his death.

Osmond said her husband loved kids and sports and was instrumental in helping the little leagues in the area.

“If he disappeared, you could always find him on the field,” Osmond said.

Both Smouse and Wonderling went to high school with Tim Osmond. They recall his love of sports as well.

“He was a football player and vice president of the class,” Wonderling said. “He was a great guy, hard working and loved helping people.”

Smouse was in the Rotary Club and the Rescue Squad with Tim Osmond.

“We always really worked well together,” Smouse said. “Now we’re trying to bring as many things as we can for people to enjoy when they visit the complex.”