View source for Illinois and Michigan Canal

{{Short description|Canal system in Illinois (1848–1933)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                 = Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath
| nrhp_type            = nhl
| image                = ill-mich_canal.jpg
| caption              = A scene at Seneca, Illinois
| nearest_city         = [[Joliet, Illinois]]
| coordinates          = {{coord|41|34|11|N|88|4|11|W|display=inline,title}}
| locmapin             = Illinois#USA
| area                 = {{convert|1130|acre|km2}}<ref name="nrhpinv2"/>
| built                = 1848
| designated_nrhp_type = January 29, 1964<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=221&ResourceType=Structure
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030502111132/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=221&ResourceType=Structure
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=May 2, 2003
|title=Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath |access-date=2007-10-11|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>
| added                = October 15, 1966<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
| refnum               = 66000332
}}
The '''Illinois and Michigan Canal''' connected the [[Great Lakes (North America)|Great Lakes]] to the [[Mississippi River]]. In [[Illinois]], it ran {{convert|96|mi|km}} from the [[Chicago River]] in [[Bridgeport, Chicago|Bridgeport]], [[Chicago]] to the [[Illinois River]] at [[LaSalle, Illinois|LaSalle]]-[[Peru, Illinois|Peru]]. The canal crossed the [[Chicago Portage]], and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before the [[railroad]] era. It was opened in 1848.  Its function was partially replaced by the wider and deeper [[Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal]] in 1900, and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of the [[Illinois Waterway]] in 1933.

'''Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath''', a collection of eight engineering structures and segments of the canal between [[Lockport, Illinois|Lockport]] and LaSalle-Peru, was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] in 1964.<ref name="nrhpinv2">{{Cite journal|url={{NHLS url|id=66000332}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Illinois and Michigan Canal|date=September 14, 1975 |format=PDF |author1=Blanche Schroer |author2=Grant Peterson |author3=S. Sydney Bradford |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=2009-06-21}} and {{NHLS url|id=66000332|title=Accompanying 27 photos, undated.|photos=y}}&nbsp;{{small|(2.47&nbsp;MB)}}</ref><ref name="nhlsum"/><ref name="DNR">{{cite web | work = Illinois Department of Natural Resources | url = https://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Landmgt/PARKS/I&M/Main.htm | title = Illinois & Michigan Canal | access-date = February 19, 2013 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130129085518/http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/Parks/I%26M/Main.htm | archive-date = January 29, 2013 }}</ref>

Portions of the canal have been filled in.<ref name="nrhpinv2"/>  Much of the former canal, near the [[Heritage Corridor]] transit line, has been preserved as part of the Illinois and Michigan Canal [[National Heritage Corridor]].

==Significance==
In the 19th century, [[canals]] were an important mode of transportation. The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the [[Mississippi Basin]] to the [[Great Lakes Basin]]. The potential canal route influenced Illinois's north border. The [[Erie Canal]] and the Illinois and Michigan Canal cemented cultural and trade ties to the [[American Northeast|Northeast]] rather than the [[American South|South]]. Before the canal, agriculture in the region was limited to [[subsistence farming]]. The canal made agriculture in northern Illinois profitable by opening connections to eastern markets.

==History==

===Conception===
The first known Europeans to travel the [[Illinois Country|area]], [[Father Marquette]] and [[Louis Joliet]], went through the [[Chicago Portage]] on their return trip. Joliet remarked that with a canal they could remove the need to [[portage]] and the French could create an empire spanning the continent.

The first quantitative survey of the portage was performed in 1816 by [[Stephen H. Long]].  It was on the basis of these measurements that he was able to make a specific proposal for a canal.<ref>{{cite book |last=Long |first=Stephen H. |author-link=Stephen H. Long |editor-last1=Kane |editor-first1=Lucile M. |editor-last2=Holmquist |editor-first2=June D. |editor-last3=Gliman |editor-first3=Carolyn |title=The Northern Expeditions of Stephen H. Long |url=https://archive.org/details/northernexpediti0000long|url-access=registration |year=1978 |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/northernexpediti0000long/page/7 7] |isbn=9780873511292 }}</ref>

With several [[slave states]] recently admitted to the Union, [[Nathaniel Pope]] and [[Ninian Edwards]] saw the opportunity to make [[Illinois]] a state. They proposed moving the border northward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to allow the canal to be within a single state. They believed that the canal would firmly align Illinois with the free states and so Congress granted them [[U.S. state|statehood]] even though Illinois did not meet the population requirements.

===Construction===
[[File:Illinois-michigan-canal.png|thumb|The location and course of the Illinois and Michigan Canal]]

In 1824, [[Samuel D. Lockwood]], one of the first commissioners of the canal, was given the authorization to hire contractors to survey a route for the canal to follow.<ref name="coffin">{{cite book | last = Coffin | first = William | title = Life and Times of Hon. Samuel D. Lockwood | url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924018816870 | publisher = Knight & Leonard Co. | year = 1889 | location = Chicago, IL | page = [https://archive.org/details/cu31924018816870/page/n50 41]}}</ref>

Construction on the canal began in 1836, although it was stopped for several years due to an [[Illinois]] state financial crisis related to the [[Panic of 1837]]. The Canal Commission had a grant of {{convert|284000|acre|ha}} of federal land which it sold at {{convert|1.25|$/acre|$/sqkm}} to finance the construction. Still, money had to be borrowed from [[Eastern United States]] and [[United Kingdom|British]] investors to finish the canal.

Most of the canal work was done by [[Irish people|Irish]] immigrants who [[Navvy|previously worked]] on the [[Erie Canal]]. The work was considered dangerous and many workers died, although no official records exist to indicate how many. The Irish immigrants who toiled to build the canal were often derided as a sub-class and were treated very poorly by other citizens of the city.

The canal was finished in 1848<ref>{{cite web |title=Wards of Chicago in 1900 Part 4—Fifth & Sixth Wards |url=https://chicagology.com/goldenage/wardsofchicagopart4/ |website=chicagology.com |access-date=7 January 2025}}</ref> at a total cost of $6,170,226. Chicago Mayor [[James Hutchinson Woodworth]] presided over the opening ceremony. Pumps were used to draw water to fill the canal near Chicago, which was soon supplemented by water from the [[Calumet Feeder Canal]]. The feeder was supplied by water from the Calumet River and originated in [[Blue Island, Il]]. The [[DuPage River]] provided water farther south. In 1871 the canal was deepened to speed up the current and to improve [[sewage]] disposal.

===Completion===
The canal was eventually {{Convert|60|ft}} wide and {{Convert|6|ft}} deep, with [[towpath]]s constructed along each edge to permit mules to be harnessed to tow barges along the canal. Towns were planned out along the path of the canal spaced at intervals corresponding to the length that the mules could haul the barges. It had seventeen [[canal lock|locks]] and four [[Navigable aqueduct|aqueducts]] to cover the {{Convert|140|ft|adj=on}} height difference between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. From 1848 to 1852 the canal was a popular passenger route, but passenger service ended in 1853 with the opening of the [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad]] that ran parallel to the canal. The canal had its peak shipping year in 1882 and remained in use until 1933.

Experiencing a remarkable recovery from the devastating [[Great Chicago Fire]] of 1871, Chicago rebuilt rapidly along the shores of the Chicago River. The river was especially important to the development of the city since all wastes from houses, farms, the stockyards, and other industries could be dumped into the river and carried out into Lake Michigan.

===Decline and replacement===
[[File:Starved Rock Lock (COE) tow downbound.jpg|thumb|New lock and dam structures that replaced the historic Illinois and Michigan Canal]]

The lake, however, was also the source of drinking water. During a tremendous storm in 1885, the rainfall washed refuse from the river, especially from the highly polluted [[Bubbly Creek]], far out into the lake (the city water intakes are located {{convert|2|mi|km}} offshore). Although [[Chicago 1885 cholera epidemic myth|no epidemics occurred]], the Chicago Sanitary District (now [[Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago|The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District]]) was created by the Illinois legislature in 1889 in response to this close call.<ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041112.html The Straight Dope: Did 90,000 people die of typhoid fever and cholera in Chicago in 1885?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

This new agency devised a plan to construct channels and canals to reverse the flow of the rivers away from Lake Michigan and divert the contaminated water downstream where it could be diluted as it flowed into the [[Des Plaines River]] and eventually the Mississippi.

In 1892, the direction of part of the Chicago River was reversed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] with the result that the river and much of Chicago's sewage flowed into the canal instead of into [[Lake Michigan]]. The complete reversal of the river's flow was accomplished when the [[Sanitary and Ship Canal]] was opened in 1900.

It was replaced in 1933 by the [[Illinois Waterway]], which remains in use.

[[File:I and M canal near Willow Springs 2.jpg|left|thumb|Illinois and Michigan Canal west of [[Willow Springs, Illinois|Willow Springs]], where the unused canal is clogged with fallen trees]]

===Rejuvenation===
The actual origin site of the Illinois and Michigan Canal has been converted into a nature park that integrates history, ecology and art to communicate the Canal's importance in the development of Chicago. In 2003 the Chicago Park District, in cooperation with the I & M Canal Association, hired Conservation Design Forum to develop plans to convert the [[brownfield land|brownfield site]] into a landscape that provided for passive recreational uses in a landscape setting with native plant species. Interpretive panels built into a wall along a bike trail were designed by local high school art students.<ref>[http://www.cdfinc.com/Project?project_id=54 Conservation Design Forum]</ref> The plans also called on landscape stabilization techniques to repair a significantly degraded shoreline (water levels can fluctuate as much as 5 feet).

Today much of the canal is a long, thin [[linear park]] with canoeing and a {{convert|62.5|mi|km|adj=on}} hiking and biking trail (constructed on the alignment of the mule tow paths). It also includes museums and historical canal buildings. It was designated the first [[National Heritage Corridor]] by [[Congress of the United States|US Congress]] in 1984.

==Adjacent communities==
Many towns in Northern Illinois owe their existence directly to the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lockport, Morris, Ottawa, and LaSalle were [[plat]]ted by the Canal Commissioners to raise funds for the canal's construction. From east to west the towns along the path of the canal include:

* [[Bridgeport, Chicago|Bridgeport]] (Chicago neighborhood)
* [[Summit, Illinois|Summit]]
* [[Willow Springs, Illinois|Willow Springs]]
* [[Lemont, Illinois|Lemont]]
* [[Romeoville, Illinois|Romeoville]]
* [[Lockport, Illinois|Lockport]]
* [[Joliet, Illinois|Joliet]]
* [[Channahon, Illinois|Channahon]]
* [[Morris, Illinois|Morris]]
* [[Seneca, Illinois|Seneca]]
* [[Marseilles, Illinois|Marseilles]]
* [[Ottawa, Illinois|Ottawa]]
* [[Utica, Illinois|Utica]]
* [[LaSalle, Illinois|LaSalle]]
* [[Peru, Illinois|Peru]]

==Associated individuals==
* [[Ninian Edwards]]
* [[Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard]]
* [[Louis Joliet]] 
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]
* [[Nathaniel Pope]]
* [[John T. Stuart]]

<gallery>
File:P1020153 Ottawa, IL (Il n Mi canal aqueduct).JPG|Fox River Aqueduct in Ottawa, Illinois
File:SR P5130009 AuSable Aqueduct.jpg|Aux Sable Creek Aqueduct, Morris, Illinois
File:SR Locktender house AuSable Aqueduct.jpg|Locktenders House and lock at the Aux Sable Creek
File:SR P5150084 GooseLake Prairie IL.jpg|Goose Lake Prairie F&WA, Morris, Illinois
File:Lockport IL Lock Number 3.jpg|Lock #3, Lockport, Illinois
File:Historic Route 66 & Route 53 in Joliet IL south of Theodore Street.jpg|[[Historic Route 66]], [[Illinois Route 53]], and I&M Canal overlap in [[Joliet, Illinois]]
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Commons category|Illinois & Michigan Canal}}
* [[Channahon State Park]]
* [[Gebhard Woods State Park]]
* [[Matthew Laflin]]
* [[David Leavitt (banker)]]
* [[List of National Historic Landmarks in Illinois]]
* [[Shabbona Trail]] includes {{convert|20|mi|km}} of the Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail
* [[Treaty of St. Louis (1816)]]
* [[The Volunteer (canal boat)]]
*[[Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail]]
* [[6th ward, Chicago]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Putnam |first=James William |title=The Illinois and Michigan Canal: A Study In Economic History |url=https://archive.org/details/illinoismichigan00putn |access-date=December 18, 2013 |year=1918 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/illinoismichigan00putn/page/15 15] }}
* Edward Ranney & Emily Harris, ''Prairie Passage: The Illinois and Michigan Canal Corridor.'' Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998.

==External links==
*[https://www.nps.gov/places/illinois-and-michigan-canal-national-heritage-area.htm Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Area at U.S. National Park Service]
*[http://www.canalcor.org/ Canal Corridor Association] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100903175222/http://www.canalcor.org/ |date=2010-09-03 }}
*[https://www.lewisu.edu/imcanal/index-imcanal.htm Canal and Regional History Special Collection at Lewis University]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040603103321/http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/landmgt/parks/i%26m/main.htm Illinois & Michigan Canal State Trail]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040622145903/http://www.chicagohs.org/canal/ Chicago Historical Society: Illinois & Michigan Canal]
*{{HAER |survey=IL-16-A |id=il0432 |title=Lockport Historic District, Illinois & Michigan Canal}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-42 |id=il0607 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lift Lock No. 7 & Control Gate |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-43 |id=il0608 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, DuPage River Dam |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-46 |id=il0611 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Fox River Aqueduct |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-47 |id=il0612 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Aux Sable Creek Aqueduct |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-92 |id=il0658 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lift Lock No. 10 |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-100 |id=il0666 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Ottawa Toll House |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-101 |id=il0667 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Lift Lock No. 6 |link=no}}
*{{HAER |survey=IL-101 |id=il0668 |title=Illinois & Michigan Canal, Channahon Locktender's House |link=no}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040608001003/http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/archives/i%26mpack/i%26mintro.html The Illinois and Michigan Canal, 1827–1911: A Selection of Documents from the Illinois State Archives]
*[https://mwrd.org/ Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago]
*[https://pickusottawail.com/ Ottawa Visitors Center]
*[https://willcountyhistory.org/ Will County Historical Society, housed in original Canal Office]
*[https://www.traillink.com/trail/illinois--michigan-canal-state-trail/ Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail]

{{Chicago Landmark memorials and monuments}}
{{NatHerArea}}
{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Illinois And Michigan Canal}}
[[Category:Canals in Illinois]]
[[Category:Ship canals]]
[[Category:Illinois River]]
[[Category:Illinois waterways]]
[[Category:Canals opened in 1848]]
[[Category:Canals on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois]]
[[Category:Hiking trails in Illinois]]
[[Category:History of Illinois]]
[[Category:National Heritage Areas of the United States]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in Illinois]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Grundy County, Illinois]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in LaSalle County, Illinois]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Will County, Illinois]]
[[Category:Transportation in Chicago]]
[[Category:History of Joliet, Illinois]]
[[Category:Lockport, Illinois]]
[[Category:Historic American Engineering Record in Illinois]]
[[Category:1848 establishments in Illinois]]
[[Category:Chicago Landmarks]]