Ancient path connecting the Great Lakes waterway system with the Mississippi River system
Chicago Portage
Elevation
589 ft (180 m)
Traversed by
Mud Lake (historic), Illinois and Michigan Canal (historic), Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, several railroads, numerous roads including I-55 (Stevenson Expressway)
Location
(historic dividing point) 3100 West 31st Street, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, US
The Chicago Portage was an ancient portage that connected the Great Lakes waterway system with the Mississippi River system. Connecting these two great water trails meant comparatively easy access from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River on the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, and the Gulf of Mexico. The approximately six-mile link had been used by Native Americans for thousands of years during the Pre-Columbian era for travel and trade.
In the summer of 1673 members of the Kaskaskia, a tribe of the Illinois Confederation, led French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette, the first known Europeans to explore this part of North America, to the portage. A strategic location, it became a key to European activity in the Midwest, ultimately leading to the foundation of Chicago.[1]
The Portage crossed waterways and wetlands between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, through a gap in the Valparaiso Moraine. In 1848, the water divide was breached by the Illinois and Michigan (I&M) Canal cutting through the portage, this was deepened and widened in 1900 by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal which was also used to control the water's directional flow.
^Solzman, David. "Portage". Encyclopedia of Chicago.
The ChicagoPortage was an ancient portage that connected the Great Lakes waterway system with the Mississippi River system. Connecting these two great...
Portage or portaging (CA: /pɔːrˈtɑːʒ/; US: /ˈpɔːrtɪdʒ/) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river...
residents. Located on the shore of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River...
one of the reasons for Chicago's geographic importance: the related ChicagoPortage is a link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin,...
The ChicagoPortage National Historic Site is a National Historic Site commemorating the importance of the ChicagoPortage in Lyons, Cook County, Illinois...
at the site of the ChicagoPortage, an ancient trade route connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds. Chicago's present natural geography...
the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the ChicagoPortage, and helped establish Chicago as...
water supply. Important examples are the ChicagoPortage, connecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and the Canal...
Branch of the Chicago River. The bottom blue bar represents the South Branch of the river and the "Great Canal", over the ChicagoPortage. The light blue...
area, covering approximately 87 miles altogether. It straddles the ChicagoPortage and is the sole navigable inland link between the Great Lakes and the...
places, buildings and geographic objects named after Marquette ChicagoPortageChicagoPortage National Historic Site "Jacques Marquette". Encyclopædia Britannica...
now Chicago around 1670. Chicago's location at a short canoe portage (the ChicagoPortage) connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River system...
Scotia Portage, Pennsylvania Portage, Wisconsin Portage Bay, Washington Portage County, Ohio Portage County, Wisconsin Portage Park, ChicagoPortage-du-Fort...
known as the "catacombs," or burial room. In 1876, however, after two Chicago criminals failed in an attempt to steal Lincoln's body and hold it for...
The Portage Park Bungalow Historic District is a residential historic district in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The district includes...
return to French Canada via the Illinois River. When he found the ChicagoPortage, he remarked that a canal of "only half a league" (less than 2 miles...
population, and the 25th-most land area. Its largest urban areas include Chicago and the Metro East of Greater St. Louis, as well as Peoria, Rockford, Champaign–Urbana...
Corners in the Portage Park neighborhood of Chicago's Northwest Side, the Portage Theater is one of the oldest movie houses in Chicago. The Portage Theater opened...
ridge, ultimately resulting in the capture of one stream by the other. ChicagoPortage, Illinois - Saddle Point runs through the city itself. Columbia River...
Illinois and Michigan Canal breached the continental divide spanning the ChicagoPortage and linking the waters of the Great Lakes with those of the Mississippi...
Global Information
I-55 (Stevenson Expressway)