[MUSIC] >> In an area known as the Illinois Ozarks, you'll find a winding back road.

[MUSIC] This twisting, turning, three mile stretch in Union County leads you to one of the state's most iconic features.

You catch glimpses of it through the woods.

[MUSIC] Then, as you round the final turn.

[MUSIC] It's looming overhead.

[MUSIC] The bald knob Cross of peace.

[MUSIC] We'll take you back to its humble beginnings and see how a local minister, a postal carrier, and a pig farmer combined to make this structure come to life.

It's our latest stop on Illinois backroads.

[MUSIC] This giant cross is truly an impressive structure.

It stretches 111ft into the air, and its welcoming arms extend 63ft.

The cross is located on one of the highest points in Illinois, overlooking the Shawnee National Forest.

It's visible for more than 7500mi .

>> Hi, I'm Mark Kiesling.

This cross started as the vision of two men from nearby Makanda, a Methodist minister by the name of William Lyerly and a rural postal carrier named Wayman Pressley.

>> I've lived here in the Shawnee Hills, the lower tip of Illinois all my life.

In fact, I was born in here in a log cabin.

[MUSIC] For the longest job I had here was a rural mail carrier.

I had 67 miles of these hills Unbridged streams, mud holes, rocky cliffs.

Well, I was on this route.

I had a chance to talk to a lot of people, and I kind of got the impression that they would all like to do something together in the hills here.

So we decided to have an Easter service on Bald Knob Mountain.

[MUSIC] >> Steve McEwan is the current chairman of the board for the Bald Knob Cross of Peace.

He says it was a bold move to launch a united service in 1937.

>> There was racial segregation, there was religious segregation.

There was all types of educated non-educated, rich, poor.

Lots of delineations that were there.

And what what Wayman Presley wanted to do was have a sunrise service that would welcome everyone.

Everyone.

[MUSIC] >> And so he did.

[MUSIC] >> So they had the very first sunrise service in 1937 on Bald Knob.

Now, at that time there was no cross.

There was there was a fire tower, but there was no cross.

That sunrise service grew in popularity to where in just a few years later, there were 10,000 people up here on the hillside.

>> It was 250.

>> It started out with that first sunrise service and then it just exploded.

>> National radio, national television coverage, and it absolutely exploded.

>> So we fashioned a cross out of two by fours for our first service there in 1937.

It looked so pretty that we decided to build a larger one there.

[MUSIC] >> But before Presley could pursue his dream of building a permanent cross on Bald Knob Mountain, his group had to buy the land.

Which brings us to the story of Myrta Kluttz, who became known as the Pig Lady.

She made a $100 pledge to the cause.

Money she didn't actually have.

>> And it just so happens, after she made that pledge that her Sal Pig had this incredible number.

I don't know how many, but an incredible number.

They started taking those pigs and selling those, and they sold those.

And that's what paid for her portion.

Wayman Pressly kind of quickly saw that what was happening and started using that as a fundraising tool.

Loading piglets in his car and truck and hauling them all over Illinois for people to raise, sell and take the donations of that.

And that is largely how the the funds were raised in order to purchase the property that we're on today.

[MUSIC] >> I use several methods to raise money to build the cross.

The farmers here in southern Illinois didn't have much money, but I figured that they would raise a couple of pigs if I would give them to them, and when they sold them, they'd donate the money to the fund.

>> That was that was a a wonderful story and raised, I think, around $30,000 at the time, which was an enormous, enormous sum of money from, you know, from many of the people who couldn't, you know, couldn't afford to, to donate, but that that found a way for it to happen.

>> Pressley is Wiman's grandson.

He still has the ledger.

His grandfather used to keep track of the pigs and the amount raised.

It's depicted in the signage that surrounds the cross, as is Murda Kluttz story.

Part of the unconventional history of this unique place.

>> I mean, it's just like, okay, you're going to finance purchasing this mountain top by selling pigs.

I mean, like, really, that's really the way you're going to do this?

Yeah.

>> Presley's vision wasn't to build just any cross on bald knob.

He wanted to build the largest cross in the United States.

And so then they had to generate funds to build the cross, which was a much greater network.

And I guess that was helped by Waymon appearing on This Is Your Life, right?

>> That is correct.

So the talk about erecting a cross started in the 50s, and there are pamphlets that are published that have images and narratives about what Wayman's vision was for this ministry, and it involved Across being built, a permanent large cross being built.

It involved having a walkway that was a spiritual walkway.

It involved having a courtyard area where there could be a, you know, a meditative environment.

It involved a number of in involved a number of different elements.

And you are right, Waymon Presley appeared on This Is Your Life.

There were numbers of individuals who saw that, who caught the vision nation, nation.

That was a nationwide television program.

And during that time, then there was an organization that actually came up and said, hey, we heard you were you're thinking about doing a cross.

We would like to finance that so long as you know, we can get credit for that and put our name on it.

And that was another one of those decisions that's kind of at the bedrock, which was thank you, but no thank you.

It's not going to be your cross.

It's not going to be anybody's cross.

It's going to be the people's cross.

And there are images of women standing in front of his desk with letters stacked this high with small contributions, and that is what put them over the top to be able to raise the funds, to then break ground on the cross that is still standing.

They broke ground on that in 1959.

>> And then they completed it in 1963.

>> And it was lit in 1964.

>> So when it was finally built, it was by the work and help of 70,000 people of every Christian denomination.

The completion of the cross in 1964, when they finally finished it was a culmination of 26 years of my spare time work.

>> Pressley soon turned over the everyday operations of the cross to a non-profit group, the Cross of Peace Foundation, which found upkeep of the cross was expensive.

Vandals broke out, lights illuminating the cross.

Storms blew off panels.

Condensation inside the structure led to rust and decay.

>> This wasn't something that had been done before, and an unanticipated, uh, thing was the condensation.

And so the old panels, they were porcelain coated steel.

And when the sun would come up, as it does each day, the temperature difference from the inside to the outside would basically make it rain inside the cross.

[MUSIC] >> And it's creating so much trouble.

It's costing so much to keep it in repair that I proposed to the foundation that they let me take it down and build an old, rugged cross out of three huge blocks of sandstone to be hewn out of the neighborhood bluffs.

[MUSIC] Well, they thought I'd gone off the deep end.

[MUSIC] >> Wayman later modified his idea, suggesting a towering granite cross to replace the one built in the 60s.

That idea was also rejected.

>> The original base was covered in Illinois marble, but one of the reasons that granite now adorns the bottom there is because that idea of his that he.

Wanted to do that people really didn't care for was.

He was going to try to erect a solid granite cross as as large as could be brought to the top of the hill.

>> Wayman died in 1990, and by the turn of the century, the People's Cross had fallen into disrepair and the board into disunity.

The early 2000 saw disagreements and lawsuits as the board divided.

The cross was badly in need of repairs.

The responsibility of restoring the cross and its reputation fell on to a transitional board headed by Steve McEwan.

>> We had a mandate by the courts to make sure that the cross was restored physically, that the cross was restored from an organizational standpoint, with new bylaws that required diversity and term limits and so forth, to prevent any kind of power structure from developing that would constrict the cross going forward.

And also just to to right the ship, if you will.

>> The new board settled the disputes, and in January of 2009, set a new course for the cross.

>> So take care of the cross grounds.

Make sure that the cross was restored both externally and internally.

And so we were successful to do that.

Raised about a half $1 million over the course of the next 24 months.

Got bylaws that were adopted by 100% of the litigants of the lawsuit.

They they agreed with the new bylaws.

And, um, yeah, 24 months later, cross was restored.

100% funds were in the bank.

Uh, correct kinds of fiscal measures had been put in place.

Diversity measures had been put in place.

And it's been has proven that those decisions have served this ministry well.

>> McEwen says it was a photo from the crosses 1959 groundbreaking that convinced him he needed to be part of this rebuilding and restructuring effort.

>> And what I saw was rich, poor.

African American.

Black.

White.

Educated, uneducated, blue collar, white collar.

In 1959.

And I realized that when Raymond Presley talked about having a ministry, erecting a cross as a gathering point for all people, those weren't just words.

He had assembled arguably one of the most diverse boards that existed, to my knowledge, in 1959 and before, actually, because they were at the groundbreaking, they had been working towards that together through the 50s.

We're talking about before the Reverend Doctor, Martin Luther King, you know, caught his stride.

We're talking about before the civil rights, you know, action of the 60s, which I'm old enough to remember.

I remember the fights For persons of color to try to get a seat at the table.

I remember that, and I'm looking at this groundbreaking where everybody's around, everybody has a shovel in their hand, and you could not pick a more diverse group of individuals.

And I'm like, I want to be a part of that.

That's what I want to be a part of.

>> And that vision continues today with the cross 100%.

>> And yes, we're very intentional about making sure that the original founders desire to make this a place for all persons.

>> Another group joined the transitional board to help raise funds for the restoration that friends of the cross group included D.W.

Pressley, his father Donald shared stories with him about those early structural issues.

>> I remember him talking about him and his brothers crawling throughout the superstructure of the cross.

Um, not too many years after it was built, using chicken wire to try to tie the panels back onto the to the structure, because the clips that had originally been installed were already starting to rust and fall and fail.

And so the panels were starting to become loose.

Even just several years after the initial construction.

But by the time they're into the into the 2000, many panels were missing.

Uh, you know, rain and weather was getting inside and affecting the actual superstructure, the main steel beams of the cross.

And yeah, it was in, it was in really rough shape.

>> McEwan took us inside the cross, a place typically off limits to visitors to give us a better understanding of how it was restored.

>> So when the board had to come in and replace all the panels and examine the structure, what did you find at that time?

>> So that was one of the first steps.

We wanted to make sure that there was no danger in the structure coming down because of the compromise in the structural integrity.

So we hired a structural engineer to come in any place where the concrete was hitting the the structural beams, where the structural steel and the concrete met.

We learned that there was some degradation due to the moisture coming in and rusting.

So there were actual the main structural components of this cross were being compromised.

We did have to replace some of that.

Most of it is fine and was able to withstand.

And we were able to stop that degradation.

And then from top to bottom, after the panels were removed, it was sandblasted and then it was epoxy painted with the same that they use for water towers only.

This is all now inside, so this will last.

This is a 100 year structure.

>> After replacing the 800 panels covering the frame, the board had to address the lighting.

>> But then during.

There was a couple of years, probably during the overall construction where it wasn't lit because there was no no skin covering covering the cross.

And, um, to be able to turn the lights back on again was, was significant in a couple of ways for me.

One, it kind of was that that next step or, um, next phase of the restoration, not only was the monument, uh, restored, but now, uh, litigant.

>> Presley says the more efficient LED lighting also reduced utility costs, allowing funds to go to other projects That lighting is on display every night and at the Easter Sunrise services, including the 2026 event, which was the 90th consecutive on Bald Knob.

After the service, the Cross of Peace Board celebrated the completion of phase one of their courtyard project.

>> All week long, there will be people who are coming up here who want to meet with God, and they don't want to be bothered.

Now they have 700ft of bench that they can just come and find a quiet place.

>> The 700 foot circular wall frames the courtyard, but also serves as a place for visitors to sit and view the cross or the beautiful vistas surrounding it.

Inside the wall are four sections of brick pavers.

Those pavers can be purchased and engraved by groups or individuals.

They stretch in four directions in the same shape and size as the cross.

>> We had a dedication ceremony when the paver garden was first getting started, and the first three paver bricks that were laid here, we had a ceremony and family members from, uh, Reverend Lyerly, my grandfather Wayman Pressley, and from Myrna Kluttz.

As it says there, the pig lady were here to each lay these first three paver bricks, uh, to dedicate the beginning of the paver garden.

And because these three people were so instrumental in the origins of what came to be this cross here.

Yes.

>> And this is just part of the memory making process.

People can purchase a paver here and then come back for generations and see that person's their brick, right?

>> Yep.

I see families come up here and you can, you know, as you're walking around, they'll be standing there and they'll be looking at at their loved ones.

Uh, paver.

>> You know, when you come up here, it's so strategic in where the, where the, the cross is, you know, placed on a bald hill, elevated 1000ft above the Shawnee National Forest.

You know, it's isolated.

And it really does invite you to step back away from the busyness of life and really just get things into perspective and experience something that is bigger than yourself.

And it invites you to think about what really matters most in life.

>> Kiana Johnson is a former board member who was recently named interim executive director at the cross.

She knows none of the recent improvements would be possible without the volunteers who help in many ways.

>> We would not operate Without all of our volunteers here, they do everything.

This entire welcome center is actually ran by visitors.

Every single event that we have, we count on our volunteers to set up, to run it, to tear things down.

I mean, they're very valuable and they're dedicated to this cross.

And, you know, they've been doing this a lot longer than a lot of the board members.

So anytime we need anything, they're the ones that we go to.

>> The site hosts many events, including the long standing tradition of the blessing of the bikes.

>> So we actually partner with the Christian Motorcycle Association.

And so they get people from all over the region to come up here to fellowship, to have prayer up at the cross.

We invite a lot of our local vendors to come up here and to provide food and entertainment, and just make it a good time for the community to come together in unity.

>> Similar functions include the blessing of the tractors, Blessing of the jeeps and blessing of the squads for first responders.

Along with the popular Fall Festival, volunteers also keep the welcome Center open.

And as the push pins in this map show, people have traveled far and wide to visit this place.

>> Kiana.

I guess another perk to coming to the Welcome Center is coming out here on this back deck and being able to check out these views rather from the telescope or with the binoculars for sure.

>> This is actually.

>> One of the most sought after spots to come during the fall festival, because everyone's coming out here taking pictures.

It's beautiful to just look out over the horizon and see all the trees painted different colors for the season.

And so people come out here as well to look at all of our hummingbirds when they're in season.

And yeah, it's a favorite for sure.

>> And speaking of views, when Steve took us inside the cross, we were able to witness a sight most people never get to see.

We climbed onto the cross arms nearly 80ft above the ground.

All right.

Now, you sure this is safe out here, Steve?

>> As long as you stay right with me, Mark.

>> I may not be as graceful as you getting out.

Oh my goodness.

Look at this view.

Wow.

>> It's a perspective others will someday get to enjoy, thanks to a new project called The Top of the Cross Experience.

>> So the original founders wanted to install a lift to allow our guests to go to the top of the cross.

For the last 70 years, that's been unrealized.

And we will are going to have the opportunity to make that become a reality.

>> The board has worked for years to clear structural and legal hurdles.

Now that project is moving forward, thanks to a $200,000 State of Illinois Tourism Attraction grant.

It will take an additional $300,000 to complete the project.

The lift will be similar to this, except with clear Plexiglas sides.

It will be used to offer visitors a guided tour to an observation deck inside the top of the cross, where they will see views like this.

>> So on the way up, hopefully our visitors will learn how this whole thing became a reality all those many years ago.

And then, of course, they will be able to see this gorgeous view that we're seeing today only from another 100ft up.

You've been there and you've seen it.

It's unlike anything in southern Illinois.

And then on the way down, we really hope to just bless our guests with an inspirational message that would hopefully just brighten their day.

>> Sounds good.

>> It's all in keeping with the master plan compiled in 2009 and the original vision of Waymon Presley.

>> What would your grandfather say?

Do you think?

How would he feel seeing the cross today restored?

I know he had a vision of some of the the courtyard plans and things like that.

Um, what do you think he would think of where it stands today?

>> I think he'd be happy.

Yeah, I think, I think he'd think that this was wonderful because just like the first time when the cross was originally built and so many people came together for a common goal and a common purpose, it happened again.

>> Yes.

>> Waymon went on to start a business called Presley Tours, taking travelers all over the world.

It grew into a multi-million dollar company based in the same Shawnee Hills where he grew up.

But his most enduring legacy may be the shining cross on top of Bald Knob Mountain.

Sharing hope, faith, charity and peace for travelers on the Illinois backroads.

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