The Chicago Portage Site at the Forest Preserves of Cook County

The Chicago Portage Site at the Forest Preserves of Cook County. . , This site preserves the west end of the old Chicago Portage which linked the Illinois River with Lake Michigan., Early Explorers , In 1673 French explorer Louis Jolliet and missionary Father Jacques Marquette were returning to Canada from an expedition to the Mississippi River when their American Indian guides suggested a quicker and easier way back. The explorers had followed the Mississippi River to the Illinois River and on to the Des Plaines River to pass through Portage Creek into Mud Lake to cross the ancient Chicago Portage., Jolliet realized that the American Indians had shown them a much shortened route between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, one that would greatly simplify trade and exploration. But the Chicago Portage was difficult and dangerous. Jolliet reported his discovery: "It would only be necessary to make a canal, by cutting through but half a league of prairie..." providing an easy water passage between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico., Traders , French and American traders traveled in this region. They too used the Chicago Portage. The fur traders had to invert their birchbark canoes and carry them on their shoulders. They lugged 90 lb. packs full of trade goods on their way into Illinois in the fall, and heavy packs of pelts on their return home to New France (or Canada) in the spring., A Chicago Visionary , Gurdon Hubbard spent his long and active life in northern Illinois. He saw Chicago grow from "a town of four and a half houses, a fort and a Potawatomi town," to more than a half million people by the time of his death in 1886. In his younger years he was a successful fur trader and trapper and crossed the Chicago Portage many times., Later in life, Hubbard was elected to the Illinois General Assembly and worked with others including Abraham Lincoln to campaign for a canal to replace the portage. The idea for a canal endured and finally a bill for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, introduced by Hubbard, passed. Construction started on July 4, 1836 and it opened in 1848. , Upgrading the Connection , Although the Chicago Portage was an easy route when Mud Lake was full and not frozen, Chicago's growing industries needed better connections to markets. When the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened it provided faster and cheaper transportation. Chicago's shipping and trade increased dramatically. A journey that once took Gurdon Hubbard three weeks now took a single day!, [Captions:] , When lake levels were high it was an easy passage between the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers, but when water levels were low, traders and travelers had to portage around Mud Lake., Explorers and fur traders easily portaged their light canoes around the lake. Later traders used heavy boats they had to drag through the muddy leech-filled marsh.