McCook, IL: Limestone Quarries Women's Tri-Blend Tee

Part of Our Route 66 Everytown Collection | McCook Edition

McCook, Illinois: Limestone Quarries

Welcome to Fabulous McCook, an industrial village in Cook County, Illinois, where 249 residents live beside limestone quarries and a neon sign that copies the one in Las Vegas and wears a U.S. 66 shield.

Light up McCook's stretch of Joliet Road in a soft women's tri-blend tee made for Route 66 road trippers who love stone, steel and a good diner.

Part of the Route 66 Everytown Collection: one tee for every town that ever called the road home. Start with McCook, then collect the entire route.

T-Shirt Details & Features

Next Level 6710 women's tri-blend tee with a slim, feminine fit (see size chart in product image gallery)
50% polyester, 25% combed ring-spun cotton, 25% rayon for a soft, lightweight drape
Crew neck with a tear-away label for comfort
Available in sizes S–2XL
Printed in the USA
Free U.S. shipping on orders of $25 or more, applied automatically!

About McCook, Illinois: Limestone, Locomotives and a Closed Highway

According to the McCook Route 66 guide, McCook incorporated as a village in 1926, the year U.S. 66 was created, and it carries the name of John J. McCook, a Civil War captain who later directed the Santa Fe Railroad. Quarries opened here in the 1880s, and limestone left by canal and rail. Wikipedia reports 249 residents in the 2020 census, the fewest of any municipality in Cook County.

Route 66 first ran through Lyons and south toward Summit from 1926 to 1928, then moved to Joliet Road through McCook, where it stayed until the highway was decertified in 1977. Later, quarrying on both sides of the road undermined its foundation, and the guide describes a closed section with a detour along 55th Street and East Avenue.

The stone is still big business. Wikipedia names portions of Vulcan Materials' McCook Quarry, UOP and the Electro-Motive Diesel locomotive plant among the village's heavy industry, and the guide says General Electric built that plant in 1935. Next door in Bedford Park, Chicago's McCook Reservoir, part of the Deep Tunnel system, is being carved out of an active Vulcan quarry. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District reports that its first stage opened in 2017 with 3.5 billion gallons of storage and that the finished reservoir is planned to hold 10 billion.

The roadside still has stories. The guide says the Steak N Egger corner building dates to around 1926 and uses Joliet limestone from the local quarries. A diner opened there in 1929, Snuffy's Grill moved in during 1969 and closed in 2010, and Steak N Egger bought the building in 2012. At 5099 Riverside Avenue stands a "Welcome to Fabulous McCook" neon sign modeled on the Las Vegas original and topped with a U.S. 66 shield. Wikipedia adds that the Outlaws Motorcycle Club was founded in McCook in 1935.

Keep rolling along Route 66 with our women's tee for Lyons to the east, plus our unisex tees for Countryside to the west and Lemont, where the original 1926 to 1928 alignment ran. Prefer a classic fit? Pick up our unisex Limestone Quarries tee.