The Chicago Portage - Forest View, IL
N 41° 48.327 W 087° 48.170
16T E 433308 N 4628487
Historical marker of the Chicago Portage.
Waymark Code: WMAJX0
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 01/23/2011
Views: 8
Historical plaque located in a forest preserve. Plaque reads as follows: THE CHICAGO PORTAGE Here you stand at the west end of a 7.5 mile long water and overland travel route across a continental divide between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi river systems, known as the Chicago Portage. Well-known to the Native Americans, the route was first visited by Europeans more than 300 years ago. It became a major gateway for exploration and pioneer expansion to the west and for the fur trade in both directions.
This remaining projected portion of the Chicago Portage route is little changed from the time Fr. Jacques Marquette, Louis Jolliet, Sieuer De Lasalle, Henri De Tonti, Antoine Ouilmette, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, Antoine Beaubein, John Crafts, John Kinzie, Gurdon S Hubbard, and numerous missionaries, soldiers, pioneers, voyageurs and traders passed through here. In 1821, the original portage route was mapped my John Walls. In 1848, the Illinois and Michigan canal was built along this route. In 1907 the Sanitary and Shipping canal was built and remains in use today.
This land was purchased from the Chicago Sanitary District on August 3, 1950, and is now owned and protected by the Forest Preserve of Cook County. The Chicago Portage was officially designated a National Historic site in non-federal ownership by the Department of the Interior on January 3, 1952. It is one of only two national historic sites in the State of Illinois.
Sponsored by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, The Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Cooridor Civic Center Authority, and the Illinois State Historical Society.
County: Cook
Historical Society: Illinois State Historical Society
Dedication Date: March 2009
Location: Harlem Ave North of I-55
Website: [Web Link]
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