The I&M Canal :: American America History

The I&M Canal "Didn't expect no town" -Early Chicago Settler Mark Beaubien The I&M Canal is universally considered the driving force behind the huge surge of growth that turned the tiny hamlet on the banks of Lake Michigan named Chicago, in to a huge metropolis and bustling center of trade. Ever since Joliet first crossed the portage between the Chicago river and the Des Plaines river in 1673, explorers, investors, politicians, and farmers alike all agreed that constructing a canal across the continental divide that separated the two largest water systems in the United States would not only create a continuous waterway between New York and New Orleans but more importantly, place Chicago on perhaps the most valuable piece of real estate in North America and in the position to become an international player almost overnight. The plans to build the Illinois & Michigan canal began in the newly christened Illinois legislature in 1818. It was driven forward by groundbreaking on work to construct the Erie Canal in New York. Once the Erie Canal was complete only a canal between the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers would be necessary to complete the chain of waterways connecting New York to New Orleans. In 1822, Congress ceded to Illinois a large portion of land on which to not only build the canal, but to sell to raise funds for its construction. The land contained the portage between the two rivers and about 100 miles of land to the south and west of it. It had just recently been coercively and dishonestly purchased from the local Blackhawk Indians in a treaty that ended the Blackhawk War. As soon as the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, eastern investors quickly realized Chicago's huge potential. The land around what would one day be the canal soon became heavily coveted by land speculators. They envisioned a huge city rising around this soon-to-be hub of international trade. Pieces of land offered by the state were bought dirt cheap and sold for many times their original value as investors braced for what they hoped would be a huge windfall after the canal was completed. Many men made fortunes that would last them a lifetime in a matter of months by buying land from the state and then reselling it months and sometimes weeks or days later for up too 5000% profit. After years of planning, ground was broke for the first time on the Illinois & Michigan canal in 1836.