Sands

"'What do you do if you're a mayor in 1850 with a criminal shantytown in your beloved city? If you're mayor Long John Wentworth, you lure the residents of the Sands to a fake horse race and then have your mean tear all the shacks down. I'm not sure how long it took for the prostitutes, gamblers, thieves and murderers to figure out the horses weren't racing, but when they got back they started one helluva riot. Just when the situation could be described as really bad, someone lit a match. The entire area - roughly the size of a horse track - was flattened into a smoking rubble.'"The Sands is a landmark in Dockland, Illinois.

History
TBA