The Chicago Portage

It was the spring of 1673. Father Marquette, Louis Jolliet and five French voyageurs pushed their Birch bark canoes away from the misty shore of what is now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and dipped their paddles into the frigid water. Their goal was to find and explore the mighty river the Native Americans had been describing.

Over the next weeks, they paddled along the western shore of Lake Michigan and into Green Bay, then into the Wisconsin River and finally the Mississippi River. This small group of explorers explored the Mississippi River as far south as Arkansas, stopping at Native American villages along the way to exchange gifts, gather information and speak of trade and friendship.

On their return trip, the Frenchmen were told of a shorter route home up the Illinois River, the Des Plaines River and Portage Creek thru Mud Lake to the Chicago River, which emptied into Lake Michigan. Taking this route, the Frenchmen quickly returned home. Incredibly, the entire round trip had taken just five months.

For eons, countless Native Americans had traveled this “shorter” route. For 150 years after Marquette and Jolliet, the Chicago Portage was used by thousands of French explorers, British traders and American pioneers traveling to other parts of the country.

When the water was high, it was possible for these travelers to paddle the entire way. If the water was low, Mud Lake became a large, mosquito-infested swamp and travelers were forced to drag their canoes and baggage through waist-deep muck. If the weather was very dry, the travelers might be required to carry their canoes and goods on the “Long Portage Trail” sometimes as far as 95 miles!

This statue, erected on the site if the Chicago Portage, depicts Father Marquette, Louis Jolliet and a Native American dragging their canoe through the area. Incredibly, a large portion of the Chicago portage exists, just as it was 300 + years ago.