Tag Archives: History (U.S. President – Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

BELOVED HOMETOWN OF PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN (1911-2004): DIXON, ILLINOIS.

Feature Image: The statue of Ronald Reagan by American sculptor Donald L. Reed in DIxon, Illinois, was dedicated on August 14, 2009. It is based on a photograph of Reagan when he visited Dixon in 1950 and rode a horse in a parade through its streets. On a pedestal, the statue itself is nine feet high. This statue called Begins the Trail is the first of a series that includes a life-sized statue for the Reagan Foundation at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, called Along the Trail. These artworks capture Reagan’s rugged amiable nature and his natural ability throughout life when riding. see – https://www.cowboysindians.com/2016/02/ronald-reagan-rides-again/ – retrieved April 13, 2025. 4.37mb DSC_0785. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Considered the heart of Dixon, the memorial arch has been a landmark since the 1920s. The original arch was built in 1919 and made out of beaver board and wood. It was built to celebrate the return of Dixon’s soldiers after World War I. A new arch was constructed in 1949 out of wood. It was replaced in 1966 when Galena Avenue was widened. In 1985 the arch was replaced with a fiberglass one with the letters from the 1966 arch. In 2024 it went through a major restoration.
See – https://www.wifr.com/2024/06/04/dixons-iconic-memorial-arch-facing-repairs/ – retrieved February 28, 2025. 4.76mb DSC_0797. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. 1967 AH-1F Cobra Attack Helicopter Gunship issued to First Calvary Divisions Aviation Group. This helicopter arrived in Vietnam in March 1967. After 1142 hours combat flown, the helicopter was damaged on July 27, 1969 because of a weapons malfunction. At 1792 hours flown it was shot down on February 6, 1970 by heavy enemy ground fire while providing armed escort to medivac helicopters with both crewmen wounded. On April 15, 1970, at 1954 hours flown, it was damaged while providing direct fire support to infantry. On July 13, 1970 it was shot down by small arms fire while providing escort at 2092 hours. At 2471 hours, on January 19, 1971, it was severely damaged by gunfire while providing direct escort protection to ground troops. On July 6, 1971 it was damaged by heavy ground fire on an armed escort mission at 2745 hours flown. 5.41mb DSC_0822. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Honor Guard on Ronald Reagan’s death day. Reagan Boyhood Home, Dixon, Illinois. 3.12mb DSC_0751. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Reagan was a lifeguard at Lowell Park from 1926 to 1932. The original 200-acre public park opened in 1907 and began Dixon’s park system with its objective of preserving scenic beauty and establishing civic beautification. From the outset, Lowell Park attracted large numbers of people to its location along the Rock River. The valley of the Rock River in this area contains bluffs and unique rock outcroppings that create a natural beauty. Over 100 years later, Lowell Park has maintained its distinctive scenic and natural recreational resources for public use. 4.13mb DSC_0845. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Lowell Park predated the development of state parks in areas of outstanding natural attractions by many years. Lowell Park is the only public place in the Dixon area that preserves remnants of the Boles Trail from Peoria, Illinois to Galena, Illinois. The trail was established in 1826 that was preceded and superceded by the famous Kellogg Trail established in 1825 east of the Boles Trail route. See – https://historyillinois.org/boles-trail-the/ – retrieved March 3, 2025. 5.73mb DSC_0918. Author’s photograph.

“Lowell Park Dixon, Illinois” by Kepper66 is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Lowell Park, Dixon’s first recreational park, was gifted in 1906 by Carlotta Lowell who was the niece of James Russell Lowell (1819-1891), a famous Boston (Cambridge) poet. The family came west on the invitation of Alexander Charters, a wealthy New York businessman, who purchased a large wooded estate overlooking the river north of Dixon in 1837 and named it Hazelwood. His home later became the estate of Mr. & Mrs. Charles R. Walgreen, founder of the drug store chain that bears that name. Charles Lowell. a guest at Hazelwood, purchased the adjacent tract of land to live. Lowell married Josephine Shaw, also originally of Boston, but then of Staten Island in New York. When the Civil War broke out, Charles enlisted and was promoted to the rank of colonel and was killed in 1864 at the Battle of Cedar Creek in northern Virginia. Carlotta never knew her father as she was born after his death and the family never lived on their land in Dixon. In 1874, they moved to New York City and stayed there the rest of their lives. After her mother died, Carlotta offered the property in 1906 to the City of Dixon for a park in memory of her parents.

June 2017. Reagan as U.S. president visiting the Rock River in Lowell Park where he was an effective and beloved lifeguard for seven consecutive summers. In July 1921 a longer dock had been installed at the beach, extending 75 feet into the river with a springboard platform. The new bathhouse was built in 1922 that accommodated hundreds of bathers. Also in 1922 electricity was installed at the park and lighting allowed the beach to remain open until after dark. Over those summers, Reagan saved 77 swimmers from drowning. Obviously proud of this achievement, President Reagan often showed his Oval Office visitors a picture of the Rock River while telling them that his lifeguarding there was “one of the best jobs I ever had.” 5.11mb DSC_0780. Author’s photograph.

Reagan at Lowell Park 1927. Ronald Reagan as lifeguard getting into a canoe in Lowell Park, 1927. Public Domain. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/photo/ronald-reagan-lifeguard-getting-canoe-lowell-park-1927-32 – retrieved March 4, 2025.

June 2017. The original 200 acres of Lowell Park opened to the public in 1907. The park was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, a nationally prominent architecture firm headed by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted. Lowell Park was designed in the American Romantic style which is characterized by its emphasis on natural scenery, native plant materials, native building materials, curvilinear roads, and minimum formality. In 1959 the beach was finally closed after ten years of declining usage due to the opening of Memorial Pool in Vaile Park in the city of Dixon. The Lowell Park bathhouse was used for storage though its concession stand continued to operate until the late 1980s. 5.73mb DSC_0879. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Rock River at Lowell Park is still the hub for recreational activities as it has been for over a century. 5.25mb DSC_0901. Author’s photograph.

President Reagan on his lifeguard years in Dixon: “One of the Best Jobs I Ever Had.”

Ronald Reagan as a lifeguard at Lowell Park in 1927. Public Domain.

June 2017. In 1921 bus service from Dixon to the park started. This diving top was anchored to the river bottom during its swimming hole glory days when Reagan was lifeguard. Swimmers teetered, spun and jumped into the water during those hot Illinois summers which Reagan knew and loved so well. The one-story bathhouse behind it was designed and built in 1922. When Reagan was a lifeguard the building served as the concession stand and the check area for clothing baskets. Under a hipped roof, the men’s wing was to the south and women’s wing out of sight to the west. The architect of the bathhouse is unknown. Native stone was used from the ground to the height of the concession building’s serving counters and for the foundations of the two wings. Above that the walls were stucco on the exterior. All stone work was coursed and roughly squared. It was ventilated by raising the hinged board covers of the screened window openings. The steel-supported roof was covered originally with black-blue slate shingles that were replaced in 1934 with asphalt shingles. The overhang is broad with exposed rafters. 5.38mb DSC_0896 Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Lowell Park, Dixon, Illinois. 3.53mb DSC_0877

June 2017. Lowell Park signage. DSC_0882 Author’s photograph.

Ronald Reagan in Dixon, Illinois, in the early 1920’s. Public Domain.

June 2017. The Reagans settled in this rented house at 816 S. Hennepin Avenue in Dixon, Illinois, on December 6, 1920. The family of father Jack, mother Nelle, and 12-year-old Neil and 9-year-old Ronald lived here three years. From 1921 to 1924, Neil and Ron attended South Side/Central School, the school building still standing four blocks north of the house is now the Dixon Historic Center. Reagan walked along Hennepin Avenue often going to downtown and back to the Dixon Public Library at 221 South Hennepin Avenue and the First Christian Church at 123 South Hennepin Avenue where Neil and Ron were baptized on June 1, 1922. Nelle taught Sunday school and sang in the church choir. Ronald and his mother were members of the Disciples of Christ church until 1937. From 1924 to 1930, the Reagans lived in a rented house at 338 W. Everett Street. After Reagan began attending Eureka College in September 1928, he lived in that house in Dixon when he was home from college. 5.93mb DSC_0774. Author’s photograph.

Reagan 1920s with family. Ronald Reagan sitting (hand on chin in front row) posing with other family members, Neil Reagan at far right (front row), Jack Reagan (middle row at left), Nelle Reagan (last row, second from left), Illinois. Public Domain.

Ronald Reagan sitting (hand on chin in front row) with other golf caddies for the Lincoln Highway Ladies Golf Tournament in 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois. Public Domain.

Reagan (second row, left) in 4^th grade in Tampico, Illinois. Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on February 6, 1911 in a second-floor apartment at 111 Main Street and, until 1914, at 104 W. Glassburn Street. Afterwards the family moved in sequence to Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth until they returned to Tampico in 1919-1920 and ultimately to Dixon in early December 1920. Reagan’s father was an alcoholic and they moved around a lot. As a young man Reagan became a lifesaver. Public Domain.

Brothers Neil and Ron Reagan attended South Side/Central School in DIxon, Illinois. The school building still stands at 205 W. 5th Street, four blocks north of the Boyhood Home. It is now the Dixon Historic Center.“Dixon Illinois ~ The Dixon Historic Center ~ Exhibits devoted to President Ronald Regan” by Onasill ~ Bill is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

June 2017. Inside the Reagan Boyhood Home, Dixon, Illinois. 4.90mb DSC_0778 (1)

June 2017. The M60 tank is designed as one of the main assault vehicles of an Armor/Mechanized Infantry/ Infantry Division. It weighs about 105,000 pounds unloaded and has a 64,000 pound payload. The tank can travel at top speeds of 30 m.p.h. and can travel nearly 300 miles. 6.41 mb DSC_0827. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Republic F-105D Thunderchief (serial #60-455) was a new aircraft that served the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1984. This specific aircraft fought in Vietnam between 1968 and 1970. It was stationed at Takhli Airforce Base in Thailand with the 355 Tactical Fighter Wing that was established in April 1962 at George AFB in California and transferred to Thailand in 1965. This F-105D Thunderbird was one of 833 airplanes manufactured by Republic in Farmingdale, New York, with over half the fleet lost in combat or due to mechanical failures. With 610 built, this particular warbird was the definitive production model with all-weather capability because of advanced avionics, including AN/APN-131 navigational (Doppler) radar. This aircraft was retired with almost 6000 flying hours and two men who had flown it receiving the Medal of Honor. The plane’s maximum range is 2390 miles at a maximum ceiling of 48,500 feet and reached speeds of supersonic Mach 2 (1,534 m.p.h.) at over 36,000 feet. In addition to a Vulcan Gatling Gun the plane’s payload includes 750-pound conventional bombs (16 of them) or one nuclear bomb. 7.05mb DSC_0831. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Capt. A. Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S., looking onto the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois, This 1930 statue by Leonard Crunelle (1872-1944) Reagan would have seen and known while living in Dixon. Young Lincoln enlisted in the Illinois Volunteers on April 21, 1832 and, following more enlistments, finally mustered out of military service on July 10, 1832. Across the Rock River is the modern Reagan statue. 8.26 mb DSC_0803. Author’s photograph.

June 2017. Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) lived in Dixon, Illinois from 1920 to 1933. Reagan always referred to Dixon as his “hometown.” Reagan made several visits to Dixon after he lived there – even as the 40th U.S. President where he visited places presented in this post and with family, friends and old acquaintances. The statue is on the banks of the Rock River which is the same waterway where Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard at Lowell Park. 4.37mb DSC_0785 Author’s photograph.

June 2017. It was after Reagan’s death in 2004 that local donors commissioned and paid for this larger-than-life-sized statue of Dutch Reagan on a palomino horse and gifted it to the City of Dixon. It was dedicated to the eradication of Alzheimer’s that was a foe that President Reagan had to battle in last years. 3.38mb DSC_0783. Author’s photograph.

Reagan in DIxon in the early 1920’s. Public Domain.

In 1982, President Reagan told the Eureka College audience, “Everything that has been good in my life began here.”

September 2016. On campus at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. The college, affiliated with the Disciples of Christ of which Ronald Reagan was a member, was founded in 1855 and is about 90 miles south of Dixon, where Reagan lived. My photo shows Burrus Dickinson Hall built in 1858. At the time of its founding Eureka was one of a handful of U.S. colleges that was co-ed. In 1856 Abraham Lincoln spoke on campus. Ronald Reagan is the only U.S. president who was born, grew up and received his education in the state of Illinois. After he graduated Reagan returned for campus visits at least a dozen times and served on the board of trustees. Reagan attended Eureka College from 1928 to June 10, 1932, when he graduated as the elected student body president with a degree in economics/sociology. Eureka College is the smallest college or university in American history to graduate a future U.S. president with a bachelor’s degree. The school is in Woodford County in Illinois. 3.87 mb

On May 9, 1982, President Reagan announced the START treaty proposal in the Reagan Gym at Eureka’s commencement exercises. It resulted in a bilateral treaty signed in 1991 between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. on the reduction and the limitation of strategic offensive arms including nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles and heavy bombers.

Portrait of Ronald Reagan in 1934 the year after he left Dixon for a career as a public personality in Hollywood, California as a famous film actor and Screen Actors Guild president and in Washington, D.C., as 40th President of the United States of America (1981-1989). But to Dixon, Illinois, Reagan would always return with its fond memories. Of Dixon the Gipper once said: “It was the place I really found myself.” Reagan graduated from Eureka College, a liberal arts school affiliated with the Disciples of Christ, in 1932 where he was active in sports and drama and elected its student body president. Reagan’s first job was as a sports radio broadcaster in Davenport, Iowa, for Big Ten football games. Afterwards he was a sports announcer for Chicago Cubs’ baseball games on WHO-AM in Des Moines. Reagan arrived in Hollywood in 1937 and was cast in his first feature film “Love is on the Air” for Warner Bros. that same year where he gets to play a newscaster. Fair use.