10. Mineral Springs Park Pavilion
Site Coordinates: N 40˚33'52.3" W 89˚37'46.5"
Your Clue: "There are two large memorial sculptures near the pavilion honoring Pekin Veterans. There is one Marine Lance Cpl. killed in 1968. His middle initial is the letter you need for the puzzle."
These informational sites along with 10 cache sites placed around Pekin will provide letters or numbers you'll need to unscramble a prominent name and important year in Pekin's history. Once you've unscrambled the name and year, submit your answer to be entered into a drawing for a one-of-a-kind, locally 3-D printed "flat" Everett, $50 in Chamber checks & some official Pekin swag!
Please be courteous and respectful of your surroundings! We hope you enjoy this historic tour of Pekin & participate in other events throughout 2024 to celebrate this milestone.
If you have any questions, please email us at pekinhistoricadventurequest@gmail.com.
A Bit of History...
The mineral spring of Mineral Springs Park
The Pekin Park District was established in 1902, but the history of Pekin’s parks in fact begins 20 years earlier, when Mineral Springs Park – called “the jewel in the crown” of the Park District system by “Pekin: A Pictorial History” – was founded as a privately-owned park.
Mineral Springs Park gets its name from an artesian well that was bored in 1882 to provide a water source for the planned park. Ben C. Allensworth’s 1905 “History of Tazewell County,” pages 943-945, tells the story of the founding of Mineral Springs Park and the creation of the Pekin Park District. Like many other improvements to Pekin at that time, the establishment of Pekin’s first park is credited to Thomas Cooper.
Allensworth writes, “In the spring of 1882 a citizens’ meeting was held in Pekin, for the purpose of taking into consideration the organizing of a company, purchasing ground, laying out a park and boring an artesian well. Thomas Cooper was selected as Chairman and A. B. Sawyer, Secretary. Henry Roos, John Caufman and William Prettyman were appointed a committee to see contractors and get prices for boring a well 1,000 feet deep. . . . Forty-five lots were bought in East Addition, besides ten acres in the south side bought from Frank E. Rupert, making altogether something over 40 acres.
