At Graue Mill, historical and environmental interests clash over removal of dam
Hydrologist Stephen McCracken has dedicated his career to conserving river ecosystems. But no project would consume more of his life than the historic Graue Mill dam.
In 2007, he surveyed the murky waters surrounding the Oak Brook structure. Within a few years, he was certain that the dam — adjacent to the 172-year-old mill — was the culprit of the river’s deteriorating ecosystem.
“It was pretty clear that the dam had a significant impact on both water chemistry and on aquatic biodiversity,” McCracken said.
It should have been a relatively simple project: Dozens of dams have been quietly removed across Illinois amid environmental and safety concerns. Instead, it took over a decade.
A group of determined community members believed the dam was an integral piece of the Graue Mill. To remove it was to strip away a historic hallmark in the village, they argued.
Meanwhile, McCracken and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County were determined to remove the impoundment. Both sides were unrelenting.
“It’s a benchmark in the landscape,” said Erik Neidy, director of natural resources for the Forest Preserve District. “But we also knew, environmentally, it’s the right thing to do.”
The dam was finally removed in November. But the DuPage Graue Mill Corp. — which had operated the site for more than 70 years — remains embroiled in a bitter legal battle with the Forest Preserve District as environmental and historical interests collide.
It’s a portrait of a sweeping effort to improve river ecosystems across the state, and the fallout from setting aside the past.
The dam
Sepia-toned photos of Graue Mill date back more than a century. The three-story brick structure, nestled in a grove of greenery, stands like an imposing monolith in the trees. It opened in 1852, grinding wheat, oats and other grains for local farmers. Water cascading over the Salt Creek log dam turned the mill’s wooden waterwheel.
Today, it’s one of the few remaining water-powered gristmills in Illinois.
For decades, the mill was the center of economic life in what was once the small settlement of Fullersburg. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad, providing refuge to slaves fleeing the South. President Abraham Lincoln was reportedly among its visitors.
Don Fuller, president of the Fullersburg Historic Foundation, grew up steeped in the history of Graue Mill. His great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Fuller, was the namesake and founder of Fullersberg. As a child, he was told the sound of water rushing over the dam signaled to slaves that they had reached safety.
“This particular area had so much history,” Fuller, 76, said. “That it was worth saving.”
The DuPage County Forest District acquired the site in 1931, launching a project to restore the mill to its original condition. The Civilian Conservation Corps rebuilt the dam with concrete and stone four years later.
In 1950, the nonprofit mill corporation took over day-to-day management of the mill, marking the beginning of the 72-year partnership with the Forest Preserve District. The group hosted historical reenactments, guided visitors and curated its museum.
“It’s more than just a building,” said Karen Bushy, 83, a board member and former mayor of Oak Brook. “It’s a story.”
Discussion of dam removal began in 1987, according to Bushy, when days of downpours flooded Salt Creek. The subject was revisited throughout years but never gained enough traction.
Then in 2011, McCracken, director of the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup, presented a detailed analysis of the dam and its environmental impacts. The nonprofit was founded in 2005 to improve water quality in local waterways, including Salt Creek and the East and West Branches of the DuPage River.
The mill corporation instantly fired back. The Graue Mill and the dam were living history, they said. A petition to save the structure garnered more than 16,000 signatures.
“There is simply NO good and sensible reason to remove the dam!” Bushy wrote in the petition. “Future generations of children deserve to see what the beginnings of our area looked like!”
Many of the environmental concerns raised seemed exaggerated, Bushy added. Deer, geese and other creatures frequented the area. Salt Creek seemed to be teeming with fish. And the riverbank was blanketed with lush vegetation. Where was the supposed lack of biodiversity?
The river
Repeated surveys by the Salt Creek workgroup told a different story.
For instance, at least 16 native fish species did not live upstream of the dam. The lack of dissolved oxygen compared to other stretches of the river was dramatic. Removing the dam was the simplest resolution, according to McCracken.
“It’s a tried approach, with a very high certainty of success,” he said.
There’s been a nationwide push to remove dams to restore river ecosystems, particularly in the past 20 years. A total of 2,119 dams have been removed across the country since 1912, including 80 dams in 2023, according to the nonprofit American Rivers. In September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended that nine dams be removed along the Fox River.
Most of the environmental concerns surrounding dams stem back to depleted dissolved oxygen. As water flows and churns, it aerates, incorporating oxygen that’s critical for fish and other organisms. But dams slow the water flow, creating still, pooling water upstream.
This can cause the buildup of sediment and organic matter, fueling algae blooms and bacteria which further depletes dissolved oxygen. Populations of fish and aquatic insects are then less productive. Fish are also physically unable to navigate upstream, further decreasing biodiversity.
Many dams are also rife with public safety issues, drowning swimmers trapped in reversed current below the structures. A dam along the Fox River in Yorkville was the site of at least 13 drownings before a massive modification project began in 2006.
Now, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources plans to modify or remove nearly every dam in public waters, according to Section Chief Wes Cattoor of the agency’s Office of Water Resources.
“Any loss of life is one too many,” Cattoor said. “With these dams often not serving their purpose anymore, we really see removals as a great opportunity, not only for a public safety issue, but a river restoration project.”
The Forest Preserve District began to hold public meetings surrounding the Graue Mill dam removal in 2011. Opponents pushed for alternative solutions — fish ladders, bubblers, even a $213 million upgrade to local wastewater treatment facilities — but none addressed the root cause, according to McCracken.
“You could spend a billion dollars upgrading those treatment plants and you would still not solve the problems that this dam created,” McCracken said.
Pushback from the mill corporation was fierce, but McCracken said that “a quiet majority” of the public was in favor of the dam removal. The $5 million project was funded by the Salt Creek workgroup.
The organization recognizes the historic value of the mill, but ecological concerns had to take precedence, McCracken added.
“I can totally put myself in their shoes and see it from their perspective,” McCracken said. “But there was not a single thing on Salt Creek that we could do that would have a bigger impact on stream ecology than removal of the dam.”
The removal proposal was approved by the Forest Preserve District in October 2020 after years of public meetings and petitions.
The lawsuit
Meanwhile, another battle was brewing. The license agreement which allowed the mill corporation to operate the site under the Forest Preserve District was set to expire at the end of December 2022. It was never renewed.
The dam was largely to blame, according to the mill corporation. The relationship between the two groups had soured amid board members’ vocal pushback against the removal.
The mill corporation said they felt ousted and penalized for speaking out. The Forest Preserve District said the decision was mutual.
“The agreement expired at the end of 2022, with neither party choosing to extend or renew it,” a spokesperson for the Forest Preserve District said in a statement. “The decision to remove the dam was completely independent of the license agreement and guided by regional efforts to remove dams to improve water quality and wildlife habitat.”
The 72-year partnership ended with a brief phone call and email, according to Bonnie Sartore, the president of the board. A wave of grief rippled across the nonprofit.
“It was a sickening thing to happen to have it to be dismissed in that fashion,” Sartore, 74, said.
Then came a slew of litigation.
First, the Forest Preserve District police filed a grand jury subpoena in January 2023 — an indicator that board members could be criminally charged. The order called for a detailed survey of the mill corporation’s assets and financial records. It was unclear what possible crime surrounded the subpoena, the nonprofit said.
“It was a complete shock,” Sartore said. “We were completely unprepared for it.”
The mill corporation moved to quash the subpoena, calling it a “retaliatory and vindictive use of police powers” by the Forest Preserve District. The subpoena was later withdrawn in May by the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.
In February, the Forest Preserve District also filed a lawsuit, alleging that the mill corporation had taken artifacts from the site and withheld financial records. The mill was left “strewn with food, garbage and beverages” and “all the walls were bare of pictures and artifacts,” according to the complaint.
The mill corporation said the site was left in good condition, and it had already turned over all property necessitated by the license agreement.
“The (mill corporation) is primarily comprised of elderly, retired good-citizens and rule followers, not the Watergate perpetrators,” the nonprofit’s attorney, Robert Lang, wrote in a letter attached as an exhibit in court documents.
The civil suit remains ongoing. The Forest Preserve District declined to comment on any of the litigation.
Somehow, a 132-foot dam proved to be too divisive for either group to overcome.
The landscape
On a recent afternoon in Oak Brook, water flowed freely through Salt Creek. There were other changes too — sprawling mudflats replaced the once grassy riverbank. The ground was littered with twigs and other torn vegetation.
The dam removal coincides with the Forest Preserve District’s restoration project of Fullersburg Woods. Crews plan to remove invasive species and replant sycamores, tulip trees, red buds and oaks. Much of the terrain surrounding Graue Mill was cleared to make way for the project.
“We understand that at first it looks shocking,” Neidy said. “Almost immediately we get a response from these restoration projects. But the good stuff will be coming back.”
Not everyone is convinced. For the mill corporation, the barren landscape is a sign of shifting values in DuPage County.
“It was a philosophical difference of opinion,” Sartore said. “But we felt that the importance of the preservation of history warranted some kind of a compromise.”
The Graue Mill reopened for the season earlier this month.
When the dam finally came down, the Forest Preserve District gifted McCracken and his team a piece of the cement structure engraved with their names. A tribute to a decade of hard work, grounded in a faithful commitment to river conservation.
He cried tears of gratitude.