Chicago Portage National Historic Site

20150705 2480

I debated if this park belonged in Towns and Nature for the Nature aspect or in this blog for making the I&M Canal feasible. The I&M Canal is what fueled the growth of Chicago and turned it into the transportation hub of America. I discovered this when I was trying to find someplace to park where I could access the Harlem Street bridge pedestrian walk on the east side to take pictures of the Santa Fe Bridge. The bridge is still on the to do list.

See Glen Miller's posting for another picture of the statue and an extensive description of other portages in the area. The one between the Maumee and Wabash Rivers that made the Wabash and Erie Canal feasible is out of his range of discourse.

Update: I stopped by again during a morning trip so that the pictures would not be back-lit.

20160416 2088rc, Overview

Closeup

I'm still trying to figure out what affects the exposure. The color of the plaque is so much different than what I took above on the initial trip. Actually, it may be a "smart" feature such as white balance that is giving me trouble. Now I'll have to do a third trip to confirm the photo above with a black background has the correct color.

Update: It would have never occurred to me to take this view. But as a supplement to some overview shots, I really like it.

I&M Canal National Heritage Area posted

The Chicago Portage Controversy! Recently, a podcast by a group of local historians asserted the route we currently call the Chicago Portage is not the TRUE Chicago Portage. 😲 

Historian Richard Gross answered that challenge and wrote a well-researched scholarly paper detailing support for the current site as the area across which Native Americans and then Europeans carried their boats to get from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River System–a direct refutation of the podcast. Hear the details of this debate and Richard's reasoning when he speaks at the Friends of the Chicago Portage's 3rd of 4 lectures celebrating the 350th Anniversary of Joliet and Marquette's explorations. 

The lecture “Mapping the Chicago Portage: Seventeenth-Century Explorations by Jolliet, Marquette, La Salle and Joutel” will be held on Sat, March 25 at 1pm at the Village of Lyons Library (4209 Joliet Avenue, Lyons). More details here: https://iandmcanal.org/events