STOCKTON, Ill. — Stockton Heritage Museum will host a presentation by Brian and Joyce Ostberg, creators of the BeHistoric YouTube channel, on the Chicago Great Western Railway in Jo Daviess County. 

The presentation, “The Chicago Great Western Railway in Jo Daviess County with a focus on Stockton and East Stockton,” will take place on Sunday June 11, 2023 at the Stockton Heritage Museum, 107 West Front Street, Stockton, IL, at 2:00 p.m. The Ostbergs will discuss Stockton, a prosperous railroad town which took root during the launch of this historic railway in the late1880’s, and its smaller sibling, East Stockton, a boom town, which rose and fell with the railway’s prospects in the early part of the 20th century. They will discuss other notable Chicago Great Western relics still visible in the Jo Daviess countryside, including the Woodbine depot, the Elizabeth depot, the North Hanover Bridge, and the Winston Tunnel.

Brian and Joyce Ostberg started their YouTube channel, BeHistoric, a channel devoted to regional history and prehistory, in the autumn of 2020,.  They have published dozens of videos exploring regional topics related to history, archeology, and geology. Most notably, Brian and Joyce have published a video series devoted to tracking abandoned regional railways through the countryside. They are currently following the trail of the Chicago Great Western railway, from Chicago, Illinois to Oelwein, Iowa, and have published multiple videos investigating the history of the railway through northern Illinois and Jo Daviess County.  

Brian is a retired software engineering Director for AT&T Bell Labs, more recently Nokia, in Naperville, Illinois.   Joyce is a retired Molecular Biologist, having worked at Abbott Labs in North Chicago, before retiring to raise their family.  Both she and Brian have an avid interest in history and prehistory and started their BeHistoric YouTube channel as a way of scratching that itch. They have lived in DuPage County, Illinois, since 1985, where they raised their family.

The Chicago Great Western Railway in Jo Daviess County with a focus on Stockton and East Stockton,” will take place on Sunday June 11th at the Stockton Heritage Museum, 107 West Front Street, Stockton, IL, at 2:00 p.m. The event is free and open to all audiences. For more information, please visit our website at www.stocktonheritagemuseum.org, visit us on Facebook: Stockton-Heritage-Museum-309324911534, email us at infto@stocktonheritage museum.org, or leave a message at 815-947-2220.