Continental Divide - Chicago, Illinois - Watershed Markers and Monuments on Waymarking.com

Sign Text:
Continental Divide
You are standing on a Continental Divide. Water falling on this line separates and runs to the west and to the east. To the west the water flows to the Des Plaines River in River Forest, on to the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers and to the Gulf of Mexico. To the east, historically, the flow was to the Chicago River, to Lake Michigan, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. With the reversal of the flow of the Chicago River in 1900, all water now flows to the Gulf of Mexico.
East of this line is a ridge which is the beach of ancient Lake Chicago. The high, dry ground formed by this ridge encouraged early settlement in Oak Park in 1837.
Along the entire length of the Continental Divide, only one point, just five miles south of Oak Park, offered the possibility of easy connection from the Great Lakes to the western rivers. This point provided a link between the two navigation systems and was the location of three important waterways - the French Voyageur route over the Chicago Portage discovered in 1673, the Illinois and Michigan Canal completed in 1848 and the Sanitary and Ship Canal completed in 1900.

Video explaining the reversal of the Chicago River: (visit link)

Type: Marker/Sign

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