Chester Thorderson

…In 1910, a successful business owner and inventor, Chester Thorderson, purchased all of the island except for the land occupied by the lighthouse in the north. He used the island as a private summer retreat from his business in Chicago.…

…the great hall was used to store thorderson's immense book collection he had over eleven thousand books and it's rumored he possessed some very rare books on the occult thorderson died of heart failure on january sixth nineteen forty five though some have speculated he saw something that scared him to death…

…Some of this history is hard to find online, but there are a couple of binders in the Great Hall that document much of it. Thorderson's personal papers are housed in the archives of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. All of this history is meant to provide some context for experiences I've had, directly or indirectly, on Rock Island. In August of 20…