Illinois and Michigan Canal Celebrates 175th Anniversary.

In April of 1848, the I & M Canal officially opened. From April of 2023 through March of 2024, the I & M Canal Corridor Association is having a year-long celebration of this event.
 
Why should you know about the I & M Canal? The opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, that connected Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, was responsible for not only turning Chicago into a major metropolitan area, but for opening inland transportation by an all-water route from the East Coast of the United States throughout the rest of the continent by way of tributaries of the Mississippi River. Before this route was available, there was little incentive to settle the country, because there was no practical way to transport goods. Why would anyone farm here, or bring merchandise or services to sell, when so few people lived beyond the eastern states, and there was no way to move your product to where people were?
 
As early as 1673, Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, and his partner, Louis Jolliet, a fur trader, explored the area between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. The Potawatomi who lived here at that time told of a route to Lake Michigan through a swampy area called Mud Lake. This route connected the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers except for a short portage. After making the trip, Father Marquette realized that a canal connecting the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers would open the entire North American interior to transportation.
 
Based on Marquette’s information, the United States government had long planned to construct the canal. Those plans were taken into consideration when negotiating treaties with the native population and when laying out state borders. It wasn’t until 1822 that construction of the canal was authorized by Congress. The canal was avidly supported by then-Congressman Abraham Lincoln, and after a series of delays to capitalize the project and develop supply routes, construction began when the first shovel of dirt was symbolically removed on July 4, 1936.
 
The first supply road to be laid out was Archer Avenue, which still exists today. Archer followed an old Indian trail that did not make it necessary to cross any bodies of water to reach Lake Michigan. The road was named for Colonel William Archer, who was a canal commissioner. Colonel Archer also had extensive property in the area and clearly benefited personally from the road, which caused some dissention at the time.
 
Completion of the road resulted in fierce competition from farmers who wanted to purchase land along the crucial roadway. They knew that, although completion of the canal was still a long way off, there would be a demand to supply food for canal workers, and the land would mushroom in value once the canal was finished.
 
In 1848, the completed canal ran ninety-six miles from the Chicago River at Bridgeport to the Illinois River at LaSalle. It was sixty feet wide and six feet deep, with a total drop of one hundred forty feet from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River. This drop made it necessary to construct seventeen locks and four aqueducts.
 
A canal, unlike a river or stream, is not a moving body of water with flowing currents. It is more of a man-made tube that requires water to be fed into it. But what happens when the path of that canal encounters another body of water? In order to ensure that the water is not diverted, a water bridge, or aqueduct, must be constructed to carry the water over the river or creek.
 
Also, since canals have very little current to carry vessels, towpaths were laid out along the entire length of the canal for mules to pull barges from place to place, in either direction. Towns were laid out along the way at intervals the mules could easily traverse and as rest stops.
 
Canal boats and barges carried cargoes of lumber, grain, corn, and stone, as well as passengers and their belongings. Limited merchandise and supplies could be obtained at the rest stops, which also probably had a saloon or two.
 
Travel by canal did not break any speed records. The average rate of travel was about three miles per hour, and that was providing there was sufficient water in the canal. Passengers, tired of sitting for long periods, often got out to stretch their legs, walking along the towpath with the mule. Some just enjoyed a chance to rest and watch the peaceful scenery pass slowly before their eyes.
 
In 1840, prior to the opening of the I & M Canal, the population of Chicago was 4,470. Ten years later, in 1850, just two years after the canal opened, Chicago’s population was 29,963. By 1860 the population had grown dramatically to 112,172, and Chicago had become a major industrial center.
 
Today, the I & M Canal no longer transports merchandise. On August 24, 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated the entire length of the canal and its environs as the country’s first National Heritage Corridor. This was a new kind of national park, one that would combine preservation, conservation, recreation, and economic development. Since then, the canal and towpath have been improved to support recreational trails, and towns along its length provide food, lodging, activities, and events throughout the year, and especially during the current 175^th anniversary celebration.
 
If this history has piqued your interest, visit the Canal Corridor Association’s website at www.iandmcanal.org. There you will find history, stories, maps, and events all along the canal.
 
Or, why not drive out to LaSalle, enjoy the Visitor’s Center at Lock 16, and take your family on a mule-drawn canal boat ride, watching the peaceful scenery pass before your eyes, just as our early settlers did. There’s even an aqueduct nearby. It’s not only informative and relaxing but will be a treasured memory.
 
Or just park your car anywhere along the route and step into the past as you stroll along the quiet and often scenic canal.