Chicago Portage National Historic Site

In 1673, Indian guides showed French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette a short land route, or portage, that connected the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River System, revealing one of the key water routes across the continent and ultimately establishing Chicago as a major trade center. A memorial to that important discovery, the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, established in 1952, preserves that vital link as part of the I & M Canal National Heritage Corridor.

©Library of Congress In 1673, Joliet and Marquette traversed a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River System with the help of Indian guides.

Marquette and Joliet paddled their canoes up the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers to Portage Creek, where they carried their goods and canoes about a mile and a half to the Chicago River and continued to Lake Michigan. Joliet immediately envisioned a canal connecting the two waterways to bypass the portage.

It wasn't until 1848 that the Illinois and Michigan Canal was completed, linking the Chicago River at Bridgeport to the Illinois River at La Salle. Despite competition from railroads, the canal was a successful commercial route and helped spur the growth of Fort Dearborn into the metropolis that Chicago is today.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County is developing the site. At present, a marker and 20-foot statue commemorate Marquette and Joliet and their Indian guides. Visitors can follow the portage trail used by the explorers along a sandy ridge in Ottawa Trail Woods to the site of Laughton's Trading Post, where Indians and traders bartered their goods.

Chicago Portage National Historic Site Information

Address: Portage Woods Forest Preserve at Harlem Avenue and 47th St.
Lyons, IL
Phone: 708/366-9420
Hours of Operation: Open 24 hours a day
Admission: Free

Learn more about these other national historic sites:

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site	Clara Barton National Historic Site	Fort Larned National Historic Site	Grant Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site	Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site	Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site	Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
Adams National Historic Site	Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site	Fort Raleigh National Historic Site	Hampton National Historic Site	Lincoln Home National Historic Site	Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site	Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site	Edison National Historic Site	Fort Scott National Historic Site	Harry S. Truman National Historic Site	Longfellow National Historic Site	Sagamore Hill National Historic Site	Thomas Stone National Historic Site
Andrew Johnson National Historic Site	Eisenhower National Historic Site	Fort Smith National Historic Site	Herbert Hoover National Historic Site	Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site	Saint Paul's Church National Historic Site	Thomas Stone National Historic Site
Boston African -American National Historic Site	Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site	Fort Vancouver National Historic Site	Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site	Manzanar National Historic Site	Saint- Gaudens National Historic Site	Touro Synagogue National Historic Site
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site	Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site	Frederick Douglass National Historic Site	Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site	Martin Van Buren National Historic Site	Salem Maritime National Historic Site	Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site	Ford's Theater National Historic Site	Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site	Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site	Mary McLeod Bethune House National Historic Site	Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site	Weir Farm National Historic Site
Charles Pinckney National Historic Site	Fort Bowie National Historic Site	Friendship Hill National Historic Site	James A. Garfield National Historic Site	Mc Loughlin House National Historic Site	Sewall -Belmont House National Historic Site	Whitman Mission National Historic Site
Chicago Portage National Historic Site	Fort Davis National Historic Site	Gloria Dei Church National Historic Site	Jimmy Carter National Historic Site	Ninety Six National Historic Site	Springfield Armory National Historic Site	William Howard Taft National Historic Site
Christiansted National Historic Site	Fort Laramie National Historic Site	Golden Spike National Historic Site	John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site	Palo Alto Battlefield National Historic Site	Steamtown National Historic Site

Find out more about travel destinations in North America:

• National Monuments: Learn more about America's national monuments.
• National Memorials: Discover national memorials in the U.S.
• National Historic Sites: Read about American national historic sites.
• Chicago City Guide: Find out where to stay, what to do, and where to eat when you visit Chicago.
• Illinois State Guide: Learn about Mobil Travel Guide-rated hotels and restaurants in Illinois as well as other recreational activities.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Eric Peterson is a Denver-based freelance writer who has contributed to numerous guidebooks about the Western United States.