"Land of many lakes."
Wee-Ma-Tuk History
Here's a 1960's W-M-T postcard found at www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton submitted by Janine Crandell.  Libby Truax, daughter of
developer Glenn Truax, is in the foreground. According to Tom Moore, pictured at the right, others in the picture are Margie Truax, Glenn
Truax, Fran Moore, and Judd Henninger,   The postcard was part of a promotional package put together by a Chicago PR firm for
Henninger, who was a real estate agent involved in selling the lots.  Tom, who lives in Arkansas, has more of this material; he expects to  
send it to us soon.
Here's What We Have So Far...

Wee-Ma-Tuk Hills is located on land once mined by the Truax-Traer Coal Company, now a division of Consolidation Coal Company, which
operates worldwide. By the 1950s, Truax-Traer made the Fortune 500, with operations in North Dakota, West Virginia, Georgia,
Minnesota, and  Saskatchewan as well as several Illinois counties.  Company head Harold Truax apparently selected Fulton County as his
home, and it was his son Glenn's land that became the Wee-Ma-Tuk Country Club in 1956.  The Truaxes and company official Gene Long
spearheaded the development.

Over the next decade, Putt Creek was dammed to create Lake Wee-Ma-Tuk, with the necessary excavating and clearing done by off-duty
Truax-Traer miners. The numerous small lakes, once strip mines, filled in with rainfall.  The land around the lakes was divided into lots.  

Wee-Ma-Tuk translates to Land of many lakes. Glenn Truax's wife Margie named the streets after Native American tribes and literary
characters.   (Pau-Puk-Keewis, for example, was a character in Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha. His phonetically misspelled name
graces a street on the south shore of the big lake.) Other street names not spelled in the familiar way include Schochonie, Washaki, and
Pokihantus, which are alternative spellings of Shoshone, Washakie, and  Pocahantas.   Native American languages, we are reminded, had
no written component until European settlers set the names to paper phonetically, and an anthropology major-turned-telemarketer once
told this writer that Pokihantus is "correct."

By the 1960s, lots were being sold, homes were being built, and  people were moving in.  Some put up fishing cabins; others built
near-palatial homes.

Tom Moore describes the country club:

The original club house was spectacular and over looked the swimming beach below the hill. Its bar, dining room and club areas were solid
walnut and granite. The club hosted several big bands and parties and had a Fourth-of-July celebration every year with fireworks and  a
barbecue of roast pig. . Wee-Ma-Tuk golf tournaments were outstanding, with excellent men's and women's tournament play. My Mother was
club champ on several occasions and was a great lady golfer, (Fran Moore)

Gene Rand contributes the following:

I worked at the golf course after high school,weekends,and summers during 1956-57.The original developers were Harold Truax,Glenn Truax,
and Gene Long. The original nine golf holes were built in 1956 on one of Glenn Truax's hay fields.The land was a fault--it contained no
coal--and was never mined by the coal company. Johnny Rusnak from Canton helped design the nine holes and was the club's first golf pro. I
think the club house opened in 1957. Frank Barr from Peoria was one of the early managers. Naomi Hughes from Bryant was one of the cooks.
Peggy Worries from Peoria was a waitress. One of the first homes was built  by Charlie Cummings from Peoria and is located on the north side
of the hill east of the original clubhouse. Another early home was built by Jack Pletz from Peoria and is located behind #17 green. Also one of
the early homes was built by Don Sutton (Sutton and Moore Lumber Company of Canton) and is located on the east side of the hill behind #16
green. My wife and I had our wedding reception there in April of 1963.

(Thanks to Tom, Moore, Gene Rand,  and Janet McCaughey for their contributions.)
Most of you have been here longer than I have.  Please help me continue this history of the
creation and settlement of Wee-Ma-Tuk.  If you know more of the region's history, please share it
with all of us.

email chris@weematuk.net,

or mail to
History
PO Box 211
Cuba, IL 61427

or call
789-6589.

Janice Stevenor Dale writes:


I lived in WMT from 1964-1978; my parents built our house on Cheyenne drive, #15 green in 1964 (beside the Suttons) and later moved
to Arizona in 1983.  I am happy to share any memories you are trying to put together.  


WMT used to mean "land of many lakes and hills" with the hills created by the "gob" piles left from coal mining.  I would find Indian
arrowheads in the grassy meadows behind my house.

Within the WMT clubhouse, upon entering, you would have passed a number of key WMT founding fathers.  I knew Jack Pletz and his
wife, and they also had a home high on a hill above a lake, not on #17 green.  We would visit when his dog had puppies, and he and
his gracious wife would serve german chocolate cake.  Jack Pletz was a golfing partner of my father's.  My father was Gerald
Stevenor, who worked in management at International Harvester for 40 years.  

I have an oil painting that my award-winning grandfather painted of the original clubhouse with its many cascading wooden staircases
descending down to the swimming "hole" with its central fountain.  Let me know if there is a place of honor for this painting; I
envisioned that it might be part of the "new" clubhouse when it reopens. I'll try to send you a digital picture for the website.  (See
below)

Say hi to Mr. Coleman for me, he was my beloved math teacher.  Tell him that Dashiell is doing algebra now at age 11 with a math
olympiad this Friday.

Let me know what I can do to help rekindle the WMT spirit.



Janice Stevenor Dale, FIIDA, CID, LEED
President
J S D A Inc.
www.JSDA.com
213.480.7500
Oil painting by
Floyd Eugene
Danner, @1964
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
The pages below are a brochure about  Wee-Ma-Tuk from  the 1950s.  
Thanks to John Loebach for supplying this historic document. Click to
enlarge thumbnail; click again to zoom in.
Two interesting facts stand out:

1)The brochure promises over 100 lakes.
2)The configuration of the bodies of water shown don't really match a current aerial view. (Use Map link on HOME PAGE.)

Did some restructuring take place? When?
Below are the pages from an article in a 1959 issue of Caterpillar Magazine, chronicling WMT's
construction. Thanks to Max Latimer, Larry Ford, and Larry Krulac for this historic find!