BARNS OF WILL COUNTRY

The Story of rural Will County is one of an encroaching suburban sprawl and the fading presence of the family farm. It is not an uncommon thing to see in the Midwest particularly in areas at the fringe of a major American city like Chicago.

Will Country has many things that shape its landscape, today. While most of the northern areas of the country such as Bolingbrook and the southern reaches of Naperville, are congested suburban towns, a second area around the country seat of Joliet has its roots in the merger of the waters of the Des Plaines and Kankakee Rivers which pour into the Illinois and in turn arrive at the Mississippi at the Quad Cities.

The history of the Joliet area is one of commerce and industry, going back to when the rivers were the sole means of transportation. Today, commerce continues at the mouth of the Illinois River where the two feeders merge. But a new modern merging of rail lines and interstate highways make Will County a staging area for “closer in” buildings of distribution that feed the metropolitan area and spread east and west to other Midwestern states.

The year 2020 will always be remembered for the COVID-19 virus. It changed the activities of the entire planet. In the United States, millions were kept from jobs, schools, stores, festivals, places of worship, and family gatherings. When it hit, many people worked from home or stayed home to avoid any possibility of catching the air-born disease.

Kevin McNulty, Sr. began driving the roads of Will County, Illinois, taking pictures of farms and the rural landscape. Much of this southern region of Chicago, has given way to suburban sprawl. Land developers and the rise of corporate farming have changed Will County from its origins. While Its northern townships are filled in with suburban living and the western edge of Joliet still teams with industrial and logistics activity, the southern region, which begins a few miles south of Interstate 80, still looks like Will County once did. But there are signs.

Aside the many fields of corn, wheat, and beans one observes signs put there by land developers, eager to sell acres of land. But family farms can be found. And the pride of the earth-bound inhabitants of rural Will County can be easily found. Take a one-year journey through rural Will County and discover the beauty that still exists just beyond Chicago’s suburban sprawl.