Donley’s Wild West Town – a slice of the wild west in the Midwest

by Scott Carmichael on

Just off the highway between Chicago’s O’Hare airport and Rockford is the village of Union. Union is home to two attractions that can help bring you back to the days of the wild west; Donley’s Wild West Town, and the Illinois Railway museum.

Donley’s Wild West Town has everything you’d expect from a cheesy wild west village; gold panning, cowboy shows, a miniature railroad, horse and pony rides and a large western restaurant. You need to be in the right mindset to enjoy places like this, as it has a bit of a cheesy feeling to it. Kids will obviously love the various attractions, and as with many attractions, that is often what it is all about.

Donley’s is closed for the season, and will reopen on May 1st 2010. Admission is a pretty steep $15 per person. If you see yourself visiting more than once, you may be better off with a family season pass.

If you want to experience rail travel as it was back in the days of the wild west, then head closer to Union for the Illinois Railway museum, where you’ll find the largest collection of antique trains in the country. The museum owns 25 steam locomotives, and operates two fully restored steam locomotives. It is also home to several sheds filled with beautifully restored passenger cars. Granted, not all this material is directly from the “wild west”, but it does give you a good idea of the importance railroads played in the history of this country.

The Illinois railway museum is located at 7000 Olson Road, Union, Illinois. Admission starts at $8 for adults and $4 for children. The museum will be open on several days in December for their Happy Holiday Railway event.

John Wayne Turns a Hundred

by Jamie Rhein on

John Wayne turns 100 on May 26 and there’s a celebration. Of course you know John Wayne is dead, but that’s no excuse to not have a party. In Winterset, Iowa where he was born, the town has a slew of cowboy type stuff to do over the weekend, May 25-27 at the John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration. Michael Martin Murphy, the singing cowboy poet is performing. So is the group Ghost Riders. Besides that, there’s a parade, The John Wayne Birthday Wild West Revue, a chuck wagon supper and free John Wayne movies on a big screen somewhere. Along with the festivities, John Wayne’s 4-room house is a museum that is open year round. It’s been restored to look like it did when he lived there and has loads of memorabilia. To buy your own John Wayne stuff, stop in the Birthplace Shop.

If you’ve never gone to a small town American festival, this one looks like a good one. I’m quite fond of events where the town comes out for a good time and everyone seems to know everyone. For example, if you go to one of the parades, people in the parade know all the people watching the parade.

By the way, Winterset just happens to be in Madison County where the book and movie Bridges of Madison County takes place. Just another reason to go there. Here’s a link to the covered bridges and movie site map. Now that I’ve found out about this, perhaps I’m just going to have to swing through the next time I go through Iowa, and I do drive through Iowa.