Fullersburg Woods, now part of the DuPage Forest Preserve system, owes most of its current ambiance to the work performed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The Graue Mill and part of the surrounding area were sold to the forest preserve by Frank O. Butler after the 1929 market crash. Butler had purchased the property from Frederick Graue in the 1920s.
After the 1929 market crash, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC in 1933 as part of the New Deal Program, to help lift the United States out of the Great Depression. The CCC or C’s, as it was sometimes known, allowed single men between the ages of 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks and in exchange they were given a bed, three meals a day, and $30 a month ($25 of which was sent directly to their families). Since jobs were scarce at this time, the CCC was often the men's first employment.
The CCC was responsible for many of the current structures found in the woods, including the boathouse, the trail shelters, and many of the bridges. Their work in the woods is distinguished by the flat limestone quarried in Lemont. The oak logs used in building the boathouse and some of the bridges were cut from the surrounding woods. The boathouse was used to store canoes that could be rented during the summer, and probably as a warming shelter for the skaters in winter.
The CCC also began the process of restoring Graue Mill to appear as it did in the 1850’s. The wooden structures surrounding the building were torn down. The addition on the east side contained a steam plant that supplemented the water wheel, and then later completely powered the mill as the water volume in Salt Creek decreased over the years. This addition was built in 1884 after the original steam plant was destroyed by an explosion in 1880. The original boiler and stack were built on the opposite side on an island north of the mill. In 1893, a hydraulic cider press was installed in this part of the mill to supplement the falling mill income. The west wing of the building was used for storage and contained a loading dock. This structure was thought to have been added a little after 1890. Vestiges of both of these structures can be seen today near the roofline of the mill.
The recently demolished (2023) dam in the Salt Creek near the mill was the work of the CCC as well. A major flood in 1916 washed out the crib dam that had been built in the 1870s. Since the mill wheel was no longer being used then, the dam had not been rebuilt. The new dam is a concrete and stone structure. The millrace was also restored at this time. The materials for the water wheel and trundle gear system were purchased, but the work was delayed due to a lack of skilled labor among the CCC workers. The building as restored today represents the period from 1852 to just after the Civil War.
Information for this story was taken from:
Village on the County Line, A History of Hinsdale, Illinois, privately printed, 1944 and Old Graue Mill Brochure, printed by the Fox Valley Section, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, dated 5-2-81.