Consider the problem in the early to mid-19th century: Most commercal traffic traveled
by barges and boats. The Great Lakes was one major commercial corridor. The Mississippi
River was another. The Illinois River, which connects to the Mississippi River at
Grafton, Illinois, is navigable all the way to LaSalle-Peru. How then to connect
the Great Lakes commerce with the Mississippi River commerce? The solution: the
Illinois and Michigan Canal.
The I & M Canal opened for business in 1848, running from Bridgeport, a Chicago
neighborhood, to LaSalle-Peru for a distance of 97 miles. Over that distance, there
are 17 locks and 4 aqueducts where the canal runs over tributaries to the Illinois
River. The canal remained in use until 1933. Currently the canal is a part of the
National Heritage Corridor.
This boat took us on an excursion up the I and M Canal. It is a replica of the packet
boats that traveled the I and M canal during the late 19th century. Packet boats
were barges that carried passengers and packets of mail.
Behind the boat is a lock. Beyond the lock is the Illinois river.
This is the other side of the lock. Overhead you can see the bridge where I took
the first two pictures.
A mule, guided by a mule skinner, pulled us against the current.
Mule and mule skinner
This is a view of an aqueduct. The canal goes
over a small stream.
One of several comments that I got on this page - this one from a long time resident
of Peru.
These are views I pass every Monday on my way to painting class. When you have something
like this going on in your back yard, it doesn't seem so great. I think that it
is the same with anything that is right in front of you. There are a lot of items
in our local paper about the happenings there, especially when the mules got away,
and had to be rounded up. Also during our floods of the low areas south of town.
When we were young, we used to hike on the tow path all the way to Utica. We would
make a day of it, looking into the caves on the north side of the canal. At one
time, the canal was dry and people actually had gardens planted there. I think this
was during the war years (1940's)
--- Cousin Millie