Bunker Graffiti Research at Midewin
From poetry to math problems, from names of hometowns to depictions of 1940s pin-up models, drawings and messages on the walls of bunkers where TNT was once stored is the only trace left behind of the workers who once meticulously toiled on this land in support of war efforts in WWII, the Korean War, the war in Vietnam and more. Maybe the drawings were a way to pass time or a maybe a way for someone to leave their mark on what would almost certainly become a historic landmark.
When Midewin NTP was established in 1996, some 400 bunkers were among administration buildings, railroad tracks and other infrastructure that remained from when the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant was active. Today, there are about 300 bunkers. Many of the bunkers will be removed for prairie restoration and agriculture. However, some bunkers will be saved so that people can see them first-hand and learn about the arsenal history of the land. You can even go inside an open bunker along the Group 63 Trail. The open bunker is located about a half-mile north of where the Group 63 Trail meets the Henslow Trail.
Much of what is known about the graffiti that workers created in the bunkers – called “bunkerglyphs” – is confirmed through painstaking research and documentation that volunteers with the Midewin Heritage Association conducted in 2008 through the USDA Forest Service’s Passport In Time (PIT) program. Like the Basque sheepherder carvings on the trunks of aspen trees in the Boise National Forest – called “arborglyphs” – the illustrations and messages in the bunkers at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie provide insights into a whole culture of people who lived and worked in the area nearly 100 years ago.
Passport in Time volunteers divided into teams of three. One person used a flashlight to illuminate graffiti in the dark bunkers, while another took digital photos. A third volunteer recorded information on paper. A series of codes identified numbers, drawings, people and place names, and brief descriptions.
Arsenal workers and the U.S. Army referred to the bunkers as "igloos.” The U.S. Army built the 60 x 20-foot structures of poured concrete. Cement forms created a pattern that resembles squares stacked on top of each other, like an igloo in the Arctic.
The "bunkerglyphs" provide a window back to 80 years ago. Dates from the 1940s through the 1970s were identified. There were displays of skilled artwork, professions of love, caricature of supervisors and more. Workers frequently wrote their names and where they came from. Workers seem to have used the smooth concrete walls as a scratch pad: Columns of numbers that are written in pencil on the walls show that workers made calculations for munitions orders that were filled. Workers tested stamps and stencils for shipments to the Republic of China, the Turkish Army and more.
From 2008 to 2018, volunteers completed recordings of the graffiti in bunkers on the west side of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. These were the bunkers that were first slated for demolition for prairie restoration. Recordings in bunkers on the east side of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway continue.