Lake Shore Park in Streeterville Traditional Geocache
Lake Shore Park in Streeterville
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A bison capsule. This cache was placed in Lake Shore Park located in the neighborhood known as Streeterville. Park can be busy at times so be discrete when making the find. Cache does not contain writing implement so bring one with you.
History of Lake Shore Park:
Developed by the Lincoln Park Commission just before 1900, Lake Shore Park was planned even earlier. The Lincoln Park Commission was one of three Chicago park boards created by the Illinois state legislature in 1869. Twenty years later, the legislature gave a section of accumulating duneland north of Chicago Avenue to the park commission. The City of Chicago challenged the commission's ownership, but the matter was resolved in the commission's favor in 1895. Shortly thereafter, plans were drawn for what was initially known as Chicago Avenue Park. In 1897, the commission began stabilizing and expanding the site with landfill, a process that would continue for many years. Landscape improvements began in 1900.
In 1907, the Lincoln Park Commission agreed to expand the park by improving city land just west of the park. At the time, the Lincoln Park Commission was a leader in a national movement toward neighborhood parks. The commission's efforts included Seward and Stanton parks, developed during the same period. In 1908, the commission officially named the expanded property Lake Shore Playground, in recognition of its location. A shelter house was erected, and outdoor recreational facilities installed.
By 1915, the city had reclaimed its land, transferring it to the State of Illinois for an armory. The commission completely redesigned the remaining parkland in the following years. Demolishing the original shelter house, the commission constructed a new brick fieldhouse. The 1916 fieldhouse sat at the east end of the park, facing Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan. A running track, baseball diamond, and tennis courts stretched to the west. The Chicago Park District took control of Lake Shore Park in 1934, when the 22 city park districts were consolidated into a single unified district. In 1963, the park district dismantled the 1916 structure and built yet another fieldhouse on the park's eastern border. The armory to the west was demolished in the 1990s, and Lake Shore Park is now bordered by the stepped terraces of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Josef Paul Kleihues.
History of Streeterville:
Streeterville is Chicago 's expensive plot of real estate bounded by Michigan Avenue, Lake Michigan, and the Chicago River. The area is home to the Hancock Building and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Exclusive hotels, like the Drake and Ritz-Carlton, provide the most luxurious rooms in the city. Four-star dining and sky-high (literally and figuratively) condos are in abundance.
And it all began as a landfill and a shanty-town.
George Wellington “Cap” Streeter hailed from Flint, Michigan. At various times he was a lumberjack, a circus performer, an ice cutter, a soldier, a logger, and a miner. His wife was fed up with his lack of direction and left him, taking his money, so he left Michigan and came to Chicago.
Cap wasn't one to stay single for long. In 1886, he and his second wife Maria “Ma” Mullholland decided to make their fortunes as gun runners in Honduras. They purchased and repaired a boat and christened it the “Reutan”. In typical Cap Streeter fashion this was a misspelling. Supposedly they wanted to name it after an island off the Honduras coast called Roatan, but potential gun runners can't be expected to let a little thing like spelling slow them down.
Gale force winds, however, put a brake on their plans. Cap and Ma chose to test their boat on Lake Michigan when a storm took over. These intrepid weather-be-damned entrepreneurs ended up on a sandbar about 450 feet east of Michigan Avenue. Instead of digging out and continuing their expedition they chose to make the sandbar their new home and lived aboard the Reutan.
This was the perfect opportunity for Cap to make his mark. Fifteen years after the Chicago Fire, the city was in a building frenzy. Cap invited the contractors to use his sandbar as a dump (for a fee) and it eventually extended the shoreline to include 186 acres of new land. You can't blame the contractors. It was convenient and Cap, of course, underbid legitimate dumps.
Not that Cap thought his province was illegitimate. He'd done his research, and according to an 1821 government survey the boundaries of Chicago and Illinois ended at the original shoreline. His landfill was therefore independent of both and he designated it the “District of Lake Michigan,” answerable only to the federal government. And, as a Civil War veteran, he claimed he was homesteading and this was by all rights his to keep.
As the self-proclaimed governor of his newly created district, Cap began selling parcels of land and a shantytown sprang up from the landfill. By this time Cap and Ma had erected a two story home to replace the Reutan as their headquarters. They lived on the second floor, complete with a retractable ladder, and the first floor was their “war room”.
Cap felt he needed a war room. Chicago 's wealthy entrepreneurs were not pleased to have a shantytown in the shadow of their exquisitely constructed mansions and businesses. They also decided a thoroughfare on this new land would greatly enhance its value by connecting the business district to the Gold Coast. (This thoroughfare was Lake Shore Drive.) So, they went to city officials and convinced them to sic the police on these squatters.
Several battles ensued for the District of Lake Michigan. Ma took care of one group by pouring boiling water on officers trying to arrest Cap. His tenants also fought to keep the District independent, rebuffing police on several occassions. Even though he was captured often, each time he was acquitted. Although at one point he was convicted of murder, he was pardoned by the Governor of Illinois who agreed that Cap had been framed. During his imprisonment Ma died.
Undaunted, Cap continued his campaign. His battles were now mainly fought in the courts as his opponents realized they couldn't forcibly oust the man and his tenants. In 1918 he was arrested for selling liquor without a license and assault on a police officer. While he was in prison agents of Chicago Title and Trust Company burned his home and his third wife, Emma, ran at them with a meat cleaver (obviously Cap had a tendency to marry women with independence and tempers – who else could put up with him?).
Cap died, rather ignominiously, of pneumonia in 1921. Ironically the mayor of Chicago attended his funeral. Emma fought a campaign to ensure the District Of Lake Michigan would remain in her family and filed over 1500 complaints for compensation to no avail. Chicago and Cook County officials found a nice legal loophole to deny these claims. Since Cap's first wife had run off with a vaudeville troupe (would you expect anything less?) they weren't divorced, so Emma and Cap were never legally married and her claims were considered invalid.
Next time you visit the Hancock Building or view it's criss-cross heights, keep in mind that it was built upon the shanty of a renegade. George Wellington Streeter was a scoundrel and an opportunist, but his eccentricities gave Chicagoans some of their most valued real estate.
And that, in a nutshell, describes the allure and enchantment of Chicago. What began as a sandbar is now the most profitable land in the city. Go figure.
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