River Grove

For well over its 130-year existence, River Grove has been a place to call home, first by the Native American tribes, then by a few settlers--mostly of Germanic origin--to the melting pot it has become today. Through photographs, the reader will travel from the farmlands it once contained to a Polynesian paradise nestled near the banks of the Des Plaines River; a town where a thirsty whale could satisfy its appetite with legendary Vienna Red Hots, no ketchup, of course, and a mai tai. Considered a real-life "Mayberry" by longtime residents, it continues to have that small-town feel amid the hustle and bustle of a village bordering the metropolis that is Chicago. The oldest town in Leyden Township has literally weathered many storms--and floods--and as the townsfolk stood shoulder to shoulder filling sandbags, they realized that they indeed inhabit a "village of friendly neighbors."