On July 15, 1957, officers from the Cook County Sheriff’s office, a squad of journalists, and three U.S. Marine sergeants arrived at the banks of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal near Route 83, northeast of Lemont. The Marines were veterans of the Korean War, including one of nine survivors of a 32-man combat team.
After four weeks of undercover work involving deputies dressing as hobos, the Cook County Sheriff’s office arrested seven men in September 1949 for cultivating a 25-acre lot not far from the plot the Marines would torch in 1957. The accused men admitted that they sold joints for as much as 50 cents, roughly $5.35 when adjusted for inflation. Two years later, the Cook County Sheriff’s office supervised the cutting and burning of ten acres near Willow Springs—”[e]nough marijuana to supply half the south side,” in the words of the Tribune.
