What a great place!! Located in Wheaton IL the 500 acre weekend home of Colonel Robert McCormick former Editor and Publisher of the Chicago Tribune who built the Tribune Company from a single newspaper to a media giant by creating radio and television stations and building newsprint factories.
What makes Cantigny special? As mentioned, Mr. McCormick lived quite an interesting life with connections to a major publishing company, political aspirations, war time affiliations and decorations, ties to Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and an interest with nature and animals. The 500 acres contains an education center, two museums (Robert McCormick's home and First Division wartime museum, golf course and acres upon acres of nature at it's finest and MORE. The grounds and public areas are very well managed and maintained.
The museums are very interesting and different. The First Division Museum contains some of the most interesting artifacts and war memorabilia for this historian (me). The exhibits come to life and you get a glimpse of a battle scenes from the Battle of Cantigny (what the home is named after) very powerful. Walk the beaches/sands of Normandy, watch countless footage of historic moments in our wartime history on simulated boxes for army footage to navy boat scenes. Any child who learns about wartime history will find this museum compelling. We're teaching our 7 year old daughter a little about the Civil War as she's been learning about Abraham Lincoln at school. Just outside the building is an extensive collection of wartime tanks from various periods in history. My children enjoyed climbing on them and my husband who is a veteran of Dessert Storm enjoyed teaching our oldest about them.
For those who want to learn about an interesting man, the house will go into detail with an interesting movie and tour of his home. Many of the items he had in his home were considered innovative and ahead of it's time.
Lastly I felt like we truly got away for the day. My girls were wiped and my hubby and I truly enjoyed the day.
For more information about Colonel McCormick, his home, the museums and more Visit http://www.cantigny.org
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