The events of summer are winding down as autumn approaches.

Most family reunions have concluded for the year, area swimming pools will soon hang out their ‘closed’ signs, and area fall festivals are gearing up.

This past summer, a lot of area residents enjoyed themselves in a host of leisure activities. Some, I imagine, travelled to theme parks scattered across the nation. And a lot of folks visited the big water park here in Kendall County, which annually draws thousands of visitors.

But while water parks are fun, they don’t offer the thrills of rollercoasters and other rides that people travel some fair distances to enjoy. At the turn of the century, however, Kendall County residents didn’t have to drive for hours to enjoy amusement rides. Rather, all they had to do was come up with the 5 cent fare for the interurban trolley ride to northern Oswego Township where Riverview Park stood along the west bank of the Fox River, just south of Montgomery.

Today, the park grounds, formerly occupied by the AT&T Technologies plant, are a grassy meadow, a far cry from the bustle of those days gone by.

The park and the interurban line from Aurora to Yorkville were built at the same time. Indeed, both trolley and park depended on each other for financial support.

In April 1897, State Sen. Henry Evans of Aurora incorporated the Aurora, Yorkville & Morris Railway Company – an interurban trolley line – with the goal of connecting Morris on the Illinois River with Aurora, the terminus of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad’s suburban service, and an important stop on the CB &Q’s main line.

Interurban trolleys, powered by overhead electrical wires, were the nation’s first truly mass transit system that served large metropolitan areas as well as rural areas. In the last two decades of the 19th Century, a veritable web of interurban lines crisscrossed the nation, connecting villages and cities across the country.

At one time, it was possible to ride from the Mississippi to the East Coast wholly on interurban cars. While Evans’ proposed line was to be just one strand in this interurban web, it was nonetheless an important one for the Fox Valley and Kendall County.

The right-of-way for the new trolley line left Aurora on the west side of the river, and proceeded south on River Street into Montgomery, then along the river valley paralleling today’s Illinois Route 31 all the way to Oswego. At the intersection of today’s Illinois Route 31 and U.S. Route 34 in Oswego, the tracks turned and crossed the Fox River on the Oswego bridge, and then, at the top of today’s Washington Street hill, turned south again down the middle of Main Street.

From Oswego, the line followed modern Illinois Route 71 past Cowdrey Cemetery to Van Emmon Road, and then paralleled Van Emmon Road into downtown Yorkville, where it dead-ended into Bridge Street (Illinois Route 71).

A little evidence of the old right-of-way is still visible along Route 31 if you know where to look and what to look for, and are quite obvious along Van Emmon Road in the late fall, winter, and early spring when the leaves are off the trees and bushes.

Actual construction on the line began during the summer of 1899, with construction of the park beginning at the same time. Many interurban lines used the lure of an amusement park located along their rights-of-way to persuade people to ride the trolley on weekends. Since electrical service had to be provided for the trolley cars, it was readily available to power amusement rides and bright electrical lights in the parks.

By November 1899 the trolley tracks had been extended to the park site, and on Tuesday, Nov. 7, of that year, the first special trolley cars began operating from downtown Aurora. According to press reports, Montgomery was decorated with flags to greet the 500 people who showed up for the dedication ceremonies. The park cost $104,403.03 to build, plus $1,200 for auditorium seats.

Although it closed each winter, the park was open for spring, summer, and fall activities each year. In 1900, more than 2,000 persons rode the trolley to the park’s opening day.

By the early summer of 1900, the completion of the Aurora & Geneva Railway provided the missing interurban link between Aurora and Elgin, drawing even more visitors south to Riverview.

By October, the Kendall County Record’s Oswego correspondent reported, the first Aurora, Yorkville & Morris trolley from Aurora had reached Oswego, and by December the line was completed to downtown Yorkville. The completion of the line to Kendall’s county seat opened up entertainment opportunities for thousands of rural families.

In the hot summer months, special open excursion cars were run to the park. When they got there, they found tree-shaded grounds boasting a roller coaster, auditorium for theatrical and stage shows, a dance hall, a restaurant, a huge carousel, and a shoot the chutes ride into the Fox River. Visitors also enjoyed rowing boats on the river, sitting in the grandstands to watch baseball games, visiting the Penny Arcade or the park photographer, picnicking, and other activities.

Aurora’s pro baseball team played at the park, reportedly with the legendary Casey Stengel on the squad.

On a good day during the height of the summer season, as many as 5,000 people visited Riverview Park. A few years after it opened, its name was changed to Fox River Park to differentiate it from Chicago’s giant Riverview Park.

The good days didn’t last very long, however. Henry Ford’s innovation in using an assembly line to produce dependable, economical automobiles (he invented neither the assembly line nor the automobile) affordable by working families killed the interurban industry.

Their autos for the first time gave common people the freedom to travel previously enjoyed only by the rich, and distant attractions proved more popular than homegrown amusement parks. Both the interurban line and Fox Rive Park were abandoned in 1925.

Today, some of the stately hardwood trees shading the former AT&T plant’s grounds are all that remain of the park enjoyed by so many during those summers more than a century ago.

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