Wasco (Chicago, Rockford, Aurora: waterpark, houses, neighborhood)

[momandwifefromcali]

Any information about Wasco will be much appreciated. Schools, people, housing, population... etc. We've never heard about Wasco before and for some reason we can't find any information about it. Thank you!

[Steve-o]

Well, Wasco has a great elementary school (Wasco elementary) which rcvd a 9 out of a possible 10 rating by greatschools.net: Wasco Elementary School - Wasco, Illinois - IL - school overview

Id guess the population to be around 3K or so, maybe more? For some odd reason I cant find that info either. Anyways, the town is ultra-quiet, tucked into the rolling Campton Hills area. Nice parks, a good school, 5 minutes to St. Charles and Geneva for great shopping and dining. There is the Campton Forest Preserve in town which is also very nice IMO (see pics below). There is a small town square area (on the corners of Rt. 64 and Burlington/LaFox Rd), with medical centers, some eateries (Michaelangelo's pizza, Pizza Cucina, McDonalds, Windy City Dogs, etc) and stuff like that. There are baseball diamonds too, as well as another nice park right down Beith Road near Elburn. Homes are your typical McMansions, with decently high prices (most older listings I saw for the area were around 5-700K).

Campton Forest Preserve:




Some other shots from around the area:














Youre also only a few minutes from a few skateparks for the kids, as well as a model RC airplane field (great fun for adults and kids alike) and a small waterpark (off Peck Rd in the Campton Hills soccer fields area).

[Steve-o]

AHA! Look what I had saved away on my computer.... a short video I took of Wasco, might help give you a better idea of the town. Click on the pic to play the video:

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee208/illinoisnative/th_RidethruWasco.jpg (broken link)

Edit: this was taken while driving north from Rt. 38 along LaFox Road. The video ends at the La Fox and Rt. 64 intersection. I noticed while watching the video that there is a Remax location right in their little downtown.

[Inthesprawlpath]

Wasco was a nice little intersection with a few houses,general store,post office,blacksmith shop,gas station,misc other small businesses.Now it is changing into an extension of St.Charles and being built into a another pile of subdivisions and stripmalls.Our family lived just north by Campton Lake for over 35 years.When it was small,we could ride our minibikes to Mathers for gas.Now that corner gives way to new little shops trying to make it.It's no longer anything special.Read the local news and you will see that Campton Township is now fighting amongst itself with a referendum that passed to become another village and another referendum coming to disolve the village.This has caused a split between residents and I know of people leaving because of it.It started with Elgin trying to annex land within Campton Township.The original thought was to protect the area from Elgin but it turned into a big mess with alot of people wanting to separate from the new village.
We have move away now.You can have it.There was a great old family neighborhood feel there years ago.Now it is just another place to build up.Great memories over the years there.The developers and crowds can never take that away and they'll never know what they missed.It was a nice place.There are houses built on spots that we camped,rode horses and dirt bikes,pheasant hunted,hiked,fished and played.That Campton Forest preserve was one of the spots we rode our mini bikes.In the 70's there was one school bus picking up all of the kids along,64,Old Burlington Rd(Burlington Blacktop it was called then) up to Silver Glenn,along Dean St.We all fit on one bus.Just last weekend I ran into a girl that used to ride that bus too.We are just amazed at how it has all changed.
It would be a nice place to go because of it's location within Fox Valley but I really would wait to see how that Campton fight resolves itself before I bought anything there.

[Inthesprawlpath]

You're a good photographer Steve-o

[Drover]

Wasco is part of the St. Charles school district, which is pretty much the best school district in the entire 250,000-person Fox Valley area. The elementary school (schools? maybe there's more than one by now) feed into either Thompson or Hanes Middle School. They basically pick out of a hat who goes to one, though once the oldest sibling is assigned one or the other, parents can opt to send all younger siblings to that same school. Wasco students will then attend St. Charles North high school.

As others have intoned, Wasco is growing like a weed. There used to be several miles of open space between Wasco and St. Charles, but development has since all but closed that gap.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Inthesprawlpath

Wasco was a nice little intersection with a few houses,general store,post office,blacksmith shop,gas station,misc other small businesses.Now it is changing into an extension of St.Charles and being built into a another pile of subdivisions and stripmalls.Our family lived just north by Campton Lake for over 35 years.When it was small,we could ride our minibikes to Mathers for gas.Now that corner gives way to new little shops trying to make it.It's no longer anything special.Read the local news and you will see that Campton Township is now fighting amongst itself with a referendum that passed to become another village and another referendum coming to disolve the village.This has caused a split between residents and I know of people leaving because of it.It started with Elgin trying to annex land within Campton Township.The original thought was to protect the area from Elgin but it turned into a big mess with alot of people wanting to separate from the new village.
We have move away now.You can have it.There was a great old family neighborhood feel there years ago.Now it is just another place to build up.Great memories over the years there.The developers and crowds can never take that away and they'll never know what they missed.It was a nice place.There are houses built on spots that we camped,rode horses and dirt bikes,pheasant hunted,hiked,fished and played.That Campton Forest preserve was one of the spots we rode our mini bikes.In the 70's there was one school bus picking up all of the kids along,64,Old Burlington Rd(Burlington Blacktop it was called then) up to Silver Glenn,along Dean St.We all fit on one bus.Just last weekend I ran into a girl that used to ride that bus too.We are just amazed at how it has all changed.
It would be a nice place to go because of it's location within Fox Valley but I really would wait to see how that Campton fight resolves itself before I bought anything there.

I agree, it is sad to lose all those childhood memories, but history cannot be changed, we can only live in the moment and take Wasco for what its worth, and its a great place to live. Be glad its not a gang-infested, drug haven or something.

I havent heard much about the Campton Hills debate lately, anyone know what direction that is taking? I see signs all over the place stating "vote no to Campton Hills", etc, etc, but dont know where the issue stands.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Inthesprawlpath

You're a good photographer Steve-o

Thank you. These were just snapshots though, nothing special. I do photography as a hobby, those shots I posted were shameful to me. lol

[Inthesprawlpath]

Originally Posted by Drover

Wasco is part of the St. Charles school district, which is pretty much the best school district in the entire 250,000-person Fox Valley area. The elementary school (schools? maybe there's more than one by now) feed into either Thompson or Hanes Middle School. They basically pick out of a hat who goes to one, though once the oldest sibling is assigned one or the other, parents can opt to send all younger siblings to that same school. Wasco students will then attend St. Charles North high school.

As others have intoned, Wasco is growing like a weed. There used to be several miles of open space between Wasco and St. Charles, but development has since all but closed that gap.

The new signs say "Free Us". People aren't happy with a another new layer of government that doesn't listen.

[desert student]

Wasco isn't so much a 'town' as it is a 'place'. I don't know why anyone is even bothering investing in such a location. The purpose of a suburb is to be close to the main city, without having many of the issues of the city. But really, St. Charles is the farthest west suburb that I would ever consider to be part of the metro. Living in Wasco gives you no close proximity to Chicago for work or play. But hey, maybe that is what people want. This is only the next step, in what is becoming fewer steps, towards places like Dekalb entering into the metro area. If development is not stoppped, and people insist on building tastless homes in the "boondocks" instead of investing in cities like Aurora, Joliet, and Elgin, we are going to see Rockford entering the picture before long. Heck, it already has! But I don't blame them, I wouldn't invest in those three cities either!