Portage Passage

Portage Passage. . For hundreds of years, early travelers and settlers had to carry their canoes, belongings and trade goods overland through the Chicago Portage between the Des Plaines River and the Chicago River. You are standing where Marquette, Jolliet and countless other explorers and traders once walked. , The length of the portage varied with the seasons. When water was high, canoes could be paddled from here up Portage Creek and through the seasonal Mud Lake to the Chicago River without any overland travel. In semi-dry times the bed of Mud Lake became a huge swamp and travelers were required to drag their canoes through waist-deep mud. In very dry times when there was little or no standing water, travelers had to carry their boats and belongings over the "Long Portage Trail" for up to 95 miles, the entire distance between the South Branch of the Chicago River and the Illinois River near LaSalle/Peru., Floating Flora, The water in front of you originally flowed as part of the Des Plaines River. During construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal in the late 1890s, it was cut off from the river and partially filled. Since this water is now still most of the year, it provides excellent growing conditions for some native plants. One such plant is small duckweed, which has dangling roots and is often found floating on top of the water. Duckweeds are the world's smallest flowering plants.