In 1885, the Chicago Board of Trade was building a new building in the financial district, pretty much at the corner of LaSalle and Van Buren. Now this building was to be ornately done up, very beautiful, and all in all a very classic design. Adorning the main entrance into the exchange were two statues, one depicting Industry, and the other depicting agriculture, both to symbolize the driving forces of the American economy. The building was built, and the twin statures faithfully stood guard above the doors for the next 44 years. In 1929, the building was torn down to make way for the Board of Trade's current building.
This is where the story gets interesting. When the dust had settled, the statues were nowhere to be found, and everybody was under the impression that they had been lost in the shuffle and were gone forever. 50 years later, officials at the Hidden Lake Forest Preserve in Downers Grove were wandering the grounds one day when they came upon two 5 and a half ton statues in the middle of the greenery. After a little bit of detective work, it was discovered that these were indeed the two missing statues. How they wound up there is still mostly a mystery, though there is one clue. In the early 1900s, one of the Trustees of the Board of Trade owned an estate on the land that would become Hidden Lake. Regardless, the statues were eventually returned to the Board of Trade, and were rededicated as part of a plaza outside of the building on June 5, 2005, where they can continue to serve as a testament to both late 19th Century architecture and the spirit of good old American Capitalism.
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