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The public had a chance to see firsthand Tuesday the monument stone that is part of the village of Burlington’s history and — thanks to some determined detective work by village officials — will be part of its legacy.

After a brief ceremony Tuesday that marked the opening of a realigned Plank Road, village officials walked a few hundred feet down Main Street to show off the stone, now marked with an “M” in the center of Main Street.

Since 1851, the stone had been buried under layers of pavement. But when Main Street was recently repaved, in concert with the Plank Road work, Village Engineer John Whitehouse went on a treasure hunt to find the stone, which had been placed at the intersection of Main and Center streets by Kane County Surveyor Andrew Pingree as a surveying reference point when he platted the original village of Burlington.

Whitehouse and city employees were able to find the stone as well as a cast-iron monument box. They dug a square hole and placed the monument box above the stone under the “M.” By removing the “M,” anyone can see the stone, topped with a chiseled cross. As you can see in the attached photo slide show, that’s exactly what officials did Tuesday.

As far as we know, neither the monument stone nor its cast-iron box held any riches, but Village President Bob Walsh suggested Tuesday that it did carry a message.

“This village has a heart. It has a lot of life in it,” Walsh said. “And 160 years from now, there will be a new generation that knows where it all started.”

• Editor’s Note: This article is a sidebar to the the photo story: Plank Road Ribbon Cutting ‘Just Opens the Future’ for Burlington