Long before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans called the land within Fox River Grove home.

The women traded beadwork and purses with local settlers while the men trapped muskrat and mink, selling the pelts in nearby Barrington, Illinois.

The area's proximity to Northwest Highway (Route 14), a major military and trade road, enabled such commerce to thrive.

The men also made fence posts for local farmers and would "spear fish at night using torches attached to the ends of their birchbark canoes.

The rapid increase of European-American settlers, coupled with pressures from the government and military, eventually forced this dynamic and proud people to leave the lands that would soon become the FRG and relocate west of the Mississippi River.

Attracted to the area for its prime fishing spots and access to 19th-century entertainment venues, Czechs built cottages among the village's hills and on the river's southern bank.

[7] In 1850, ethnic-Czech, Frank Opatrny purchased 80 acres (32 ha) of land on the southern shore of the Fox River.

Considered to be the patriarch of the village's founding family, Frank's son Eman Opatrny put FRG on the map by turning his homestead into the regionally known Picnic Grove.

[8] The Czech community established St. John's Nepomucene Catholic Church and Cemetery on the southwest fringe of Fox River Grove in 1861.

[9] In 1900, Edward and Francis Konopasek (a Czech couple after whom one FRG's wards is named) built the Grove's first hotel—the Hotel Fox—and established a taxi service that shuttled notables like the Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak and Illinois Attorney General Otto Kerner Sr. from the nearest train stations to the Grove.

[8] Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Czech immigrants transformed the Grove from a backwater pioneer settlement into a resort town.

Known as the Fox River Picnic Grove, this large swath of land housed picnic plots (including sheltered areas), a shooting gallery, a horse track, six bars, a boathouse, boat docks, a dancing platform, a restaurant, a photo gallery, rowboat rentals, a bowling alley, a railroad spur track, a steam-powered excursion boat, and baseball diamonds.

Christened as the Castle Pavilion and Resort Hotel, the establishment had windows displayed during Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition, the area's first player piano, and a dance floor.

Built by Louis Cernocky Sr. at the corner of Northwest Highway and Lincoln Avenue, the establishment became a watering hole for many prominent Chicago residents and several notorious gangsters.

Louie's Place also housed the Crystal Ballroom, an eight-sided dance hall built in 1923 where big-bands—including Glenn Miller, Coon-Sanders, Wayne King, Louis Panico, Fred Waring, Frankie Masters, Art Kassel, and Guy Lombardo—entertained patrons.

A week later, four men saturated the ballroom with kerosene while their other two counterparts abducted the night watchman and a visiting fire marshall.

[11][better source needed] During the Prohibition Era, Fox River Grove hosted a number of Chicago area crime syndicates.

Located on the Fox River, the Grove served as a smuggling hub, with its waterways providing a transportation route.

At the same time, the village's small and relatively remote nature helped to shelter gang activity from the Chicago Police Department and federal authorities.

[tone] Cernocky's property assets throughout FRG—along with his double-life stature as both a respected citizen and Capone gang bootlegger—allowed the operation to flourish.

Having already neutralized Dillinger in Chicago, federal agents pursued and fatally shot Baby Face Nelson on nearby Route 14 in The Battle of Barrington.

[33] The building's front facade is surrounded by a wall of rock slabs, erected in honor of the victims of the 1995 bus-train collision.

Algonquin Road Elementary School (colloquially known as ARS) provides a Kindergarten through 4th-grade educational curriculum with a 12:1 student-teacher ratio.

[36] Most students in the village attend Cary-Grove Community High School located across the Fox River in neighboring Cary.

[38] The village's small size has inhibited it from being able to support an official park district, so recreational activities are planned and administered by the volunteer-run Fox River Grove Rec Council.

This waterside park is the site of Lions Fest, a yearly September festival in which Fox River Grove residents gather to converse and eat roasted corn.

In order to stymie erosion in 2020, the village dumped loads of rocks along a 500-foot stretch of riverbank in Picnic Grove Park.

Illinois Route 22 also passes through FRG, connecting the village to North Barrington, Lake Zurich, Long Grove, Lincolnshire, the Tri-State Tollway, Bannockburn, and Highland Park.

FRG residents can make use of the MCRide system, a dial-a-ride service that offers rides between several McHenry County municipalities.

[46] FRG has one Metra station along the Union Pacific Northwest line which connects Harvard, Illinois to Chicago's Ogilvie Transportation Center.