I Love Chicago! - I & M Canal - Beginnings
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A Magnetic Keyholder
There is a new park in Chicago!
It is to celebrate the origin of The I & M Canal.
The cache is placed near the very beginning. Be sure to take a tour of the park and enjoy the views.
A few traces of the canal remain in Chicago in Bridgeport. Even the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) was built on the canal alignment.
The History:
A French explorer-mapmaker, Louis Jolliet, first proposed a canal connecting Lake Michigan with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in 1673, but the idea was not pursued in earnest until the 1800s.
Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette, with and American Indian guide, were returning to Canada after exploring the Mississippi and determining that the river flowed south to the Gulf of Mexico. Traveling north via the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers, the explorers came across a low ridge requiring them to portage their boats to the Chicago river. The site – now called Chicago Portage – was well known to the Indians, whose ancestors had inhabited the valleys of northern Illinois for more than 10,000 years.
In writing about his trip, Jolliet envisioned a short canal through the portage area so that boats could travel from Lake Michigan via the Chicago, Des Plaines, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf.
The Idea lay fallow until after the American Revolution, when the U.S. Government built Fort Dearborn on the lands at the mouth of the Chicago River obtained in a treaty with the Potawatomi Indians. As the fur trade burgeoned and more European settlers moved into the region, the proposal for a connecting canal reappeared periodically. Eventually a second Illinois Canal commission raised funds from land sales, and canal construction started on July 4, 1836.
Immigrants from Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Poland, and other nations – some of whom had worked on New York’s Erie Canal – were brought in to dog the earth and, in places, to cut into the bedrock to create the canal prism, or ditch. They built feeder canals, locks, aqueducts, dams, plus the towpath for mules and houses for the locktenders. Construction Stopped for years because of lack of funds, English and eastern investors finally came to the rescue, and the $6.5 million canal opened for business on April 20, 1848. the 96 mile canal was six feet deep and 60 feet wide. Fifteen locks lowered and raised the canal boats a total of 141 feet, the difference in elevation between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River.
Soon 100 foot long boars were traveling back and forth caring grain, stone, lumber, and coal. Goods could now be transported between New York City and New Orleans via the less expensive and easier all-water route along rivers, lakes, and canals. Packet boats carried passengers in 22 hours from Chicago to LaSalle.
Trade soared east and west, north and south. In 10 years Chicago’s population soared 600%. With the increase in commerce, communities such as Lockport, Joilet, Seneca, Marseilles, Ottowa, and LaSalle flourished along the canal. The canal soon faces still competition from the faster railroads.
The I & M reduced tolls, but traffic and income declined.
Even steam-powered boats, introduced in 1870, could not compete with trains. Instead of moving passengers, raw materials, and products, the I & M increasingly carried sewage and other wastes from Chicago. Then, the larger Sanitary and Ship canal opened in 1900 to transport the wastes and large barges. Small barges and pleasure boats continued to use the I & M Canal until 1933, when the Illinois Waterway, joining the channelized Des Plaines and Illinois rivers with the Sanitary Canal, opened.
Despite its brief heyday, the Illinois and Michigan Canal had spawned two successor transportation waterways, sparked the settlement of Chicago and northern Illinois, and energized the economy of the Midwest. Its legacy lives on.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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