Are toboggan slides forever snowbound?
Thursday, January 13, 2005 Cook County Board President John Stroger and a majority on the board have evidently gotten their way in shutting down toboggan slides in the county. And so, soon fading into the mists of local history will go the storied Swallow Cliff slides, for decades one of the most popular winter attractions in our corner of the county. The imminent demise of the Swallow Cliff facility has been well advertised for several years by the county’s elected officials. The county board, sitting as it also does as the forest preserve district board, have repeatedly said that the county’s various toboggan facilities are old and in ill repair, that there are insufficient funds to fix them up and that they are underused and therefore of little relative value among forest preserve amenities. After announcing the shutdown of most of the slides two years ago, a public clamor forced the board to keep a few open, including the Swallow Cliff chutes near Palos Park. But last winter the de
