Guide books often funnel people to over-loved places.
Atlas Obscura, “the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders,” is a good resource to locate uncrowded, off-beat places to spice up a walk. The information is crowd-sourced, so it needs to be treated with caution. For example, a “machine gun nest” near our home is simply a perch to look up and down the Mississippi. Citations are not its strong point.
I’m just back from a one-night visit to Chicago where I based one of my walks on posts in Atlas Obscura. Along the way, I found additional points of interest, some listed in guide books, some not.
I focused on Hyde Park, a few miles south of downtown Chicago. The area is dominated by the sprawling University of Chicago campus.
Cosmic ray detectors
I stood in an alley looking at three large objects, rotting at the corner of a surface parking lot.
The large, yellow, metal container has the following markings:
SPACE LAB 2 – EXP. No 6
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ENRICO FERMI INSTITUTE
LABORATORY FOR ASTROPHYSICS & SPACE RESEARCH
UNDER NASA CONTRACT NAS -8-32828
It contains, or once contained, a cosmic ray detection system built at the University of Chicago. A search on contract NAS -8-32828 brought me to this abstract:
A detector for cosmic-ray nuclei at very high energies
We discuss the design and performance of a detector system that was developed to measure the elemental abundance distribution of cosmic-ray nuclei … . … We designed a counter telescope with gas Cherenkov counters and transition radiation detectors for particle energy measurements. … The instrument was flown for eight days in the Spacelab-2 configuration on the Space Shuttle [Challenger] in July/August 1985.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, 1990.
(I added explanatory links. )
In 1986 Challenger tragically broke apart in flight. With space shuttles grounded, researchers switched to high altitude balloons.
According to Atlas Obscura the other two large objects in the above photographs are cosmic ray detectors that had been carried aloft by high altitude balloons.
The first controlled nuclear chain reaction
A Henry Moore sculpture, Nuclear Energy, marks the site of the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in December 1942. Enrico Fermi and his team erected a pile of graphite blocks to enclose metallic uranium and uranium oxide. Cadmium control rods moderated the chain reaction. This was the first big technical achievement of the Manhattan Project.
Enrico Fermi Institute
Fermi’s name had popped up in relation to two of the places I had visited, so it was fitting to stand outside a building of the Enrico Fermi Institute. The institute was founded shortly after World War II as the Institute for Nuclear Studies, and was later renamed in honor of Fermi.
The Robie House
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Frederick C. Robie House, built in 1910, is a gem. Mercifully, access is controlled, so it’s never crowded. I have visited this place, but would’ve enjoyed a second look. However, I just wanted to keep moving.
I did pause for a cuppa and a perfect, flaky almond croissant in the undistinguished building behind the Robie House, a seminary.
Seven Ten Lanes bowling alley
I imagined Michelle and Barack Obama, out for a date, in this bowling alley when it was known as the Lucky Strike. I wasn’t able to confirm this information independent of Atlas Obscura, but it’s a pleasant mental image.
1957 Cadillac De Ville encased in concrete
A 1957 Cadillac De Ville, encased in concrete, sat in a parking ramp. There was no explanatory signage, but thanks to Atlas Obscura, I learned it was an art piece called Concrete Traffic, created by German artist Wolf Vostell (1932–1998) in 1970.
I wondered why it had been installed in this particular parking ramp. It turns out the piece belongs to the nearby Smart Museum of Art.
Vostell was a co-founder of the Fluxus movement. This is not my first exposure to Fluxus, so I choose to see this as one stop on a journey: it’s not merely an automobile encased in concrete. Fluxus seems to be more about process than end results.
Michelle and Barack Obama’s first kiss
My final port-of-call was a plaque at a street corner marking the spot where Michelle and Barack Obama had their first kiss.
