Map of Cook County Illinois Showing Highways and Forest Preserves

Cook County near the height of Chicago’s Gangster Era.

This wonderfully detailed map of Cook County, Illinois was prepared by the Board of County Commissioners under President Anton Cermak and published locally in 1924. Cermak, a strong opponent of organized crime, would go on to become Mayor of Chicago in 1931. He would serve in that role until his death in 1933, when he was killed instead of President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt during an attempted assassination.

The image presents an ‘official’ view of Cook County during the mid-1920s that contrasts with Chicago’s popular identity as a Prohibition-era gangster hotspot. A string of forest preserves, tourist camps, and golf courses is brightly highlighted in green, connected by a growing system of state roads labeled with red overprinting. The Cook County Forest Preserves (listed, center right) are especially notable, encompassing over 25,000 acres since their official inception in 1915.

In addition to expanding automobile routes, alternate regional transportation routes include a robust network of steam and electric railroads, noted according to the legend in the upper right. Schools, churches, cemeteries, and parks are also shown. Further features are labeled within the image, including prominent local industries, the system of boulevards, country clubs, and expanding suburbs on the north and west sides of the city.

Cook County during the 1920s was largely defined by the metropolis of Chicago, then a hotbed of illegal activity fueled in large part by Prohibition. Rival gangs violently fought for control of the illicit alcohol trade, leading to the rise of Al Capone and his takeover of the Chicago Outfit in 1925. The year of publication, 1924, saw the gang (still then under Joe Torrio) move most of its operations to Cicero, just outside city limits.