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The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is at the head of the I & M Canal National Heritage Corridor. The historic center, currently under development, will serve as a major interpretive site for the Corridor as well as the focus for historic interpretation in the Cook County Forest Preserves.

"History is but geography in motion," a historian wrote, and nowhere is the notion more evident than in the Chicago area. The guiding feature of Chicago's geography is the Chicago Portage, a low divide between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. The portage connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River System, creating one of the key routes across the continent.

In 1673, Native Americans showed explorers Marquette and Jolliet this vital connection between the two major waterways of eastern North America. They paddled their canoes up the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers to Portage Creek, made a short portage (carried their goods and canoes overland) to the south branch of the Chicago River and paddled on into Lake Michigan. Jolliet immediately saw the potential of a canal connecting the two waterways, the Illinois River and Chicago River, thereby eliminating the difficulties of the portage.

The portage trail passed north of Mud Lake on a sandy ridge. That trail, which eventually became Route 66 and Joliet Road, also was a major land route to the southwest known as Ottawa Trail. It crossed the Des Plaines River at rocky outcrops, known as Stony Ford and Laughton's Ford.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal, completed in 1848, extended from the Chicago River at Bridgeport to the Illinois River at La Salle. The canal was an immediate success and, despite increasing competition from railroads, was a driving force in the growth of Chicago.

It is almost impossible for us today to imagine the world of Indians and traders, of canoes and portages. It was a hard life of battling harsh weather with poor shelter, of dragging boats through the mud, leeches and mosquitos of Mud Lake, and many other difficulties. It was also a time of abundant wildlife and seas of grass and wildflowers. Continue through the National Heritage Corridor to see the I & M Canal, thousands of acres of forest preserves, and many more historic sites and structures.

A monument to the French explorers, Marquette and Jolliet, and their Indian guides has been erected at Chicago Portage Woods. Beyond it you can see a portion of Portage Creek where it joined the Des Plaines River at Wall's Meander. This fragment, cut off from the main river by a levee and channelization during construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal, still holds the spirit of a bygone era.

North of 47th Street, in Ottawa Trail Woods, you can walk along the ridge where many footsteps passed their way to Laughton's Ford. A rocky outcrop still marks this ford in the present river and you can pause at the site of Laughton's Trading Post, where perhaps the ghosts of Indians and traders linger.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County, in cooperation with the I & M Canal Civic Center Authority, is developing a major interpretive facility, which will include a museum, archeological center, a replica of Laughton's Trading Post, library and other resources. Forest preserve naturalists lead walks through the site and are available for other programs.

About this page...

This page is based on a publication of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois, adapted for the web as a public service by CLONK. This web site is unofficial, and not associated in any way with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. CLONK is not responsible for any errors, either in the original publication or in this web version. The information presented here follows the original Forest Preserve District publication as closely as possible, with minor variations such as choice of typeface and added web links. CLONK cautions that items such as names of public servants and telephone numbers are subject to change!

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