Now part of the Chicago Park District, fittingly a government-owned land, it once existed in an area where the Treaty of St. Louis (1816) provided rights & land to the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi by the United States. As with most treaties, it was short lived - Native Americans eventually were pushed west. The park itself has been open since 1922 and the Field House served a home to Native American artwork and history.
Graceland Cemetery is the final resting place of many notable Chicagoans, including Charles Wacker, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, and Marshall Field, among many others. Located on the North side of the city, Graceland Cemetery has become a tourist attraction thanks to its beautiful Victorian landscaping. The cemetery still offers individual and family plots for burial, as well as cremation plots. Graceland Cemetery is one of the most peaceful and beautiful attractions in the city of Chicago.
The Chicago History Museum is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Chicago's rich and varied history, as well as American history. The museum is located at the southwestern corner of the city's famous Lincoln Park and housed in a building constructed in 1932; the modern addition was built in 1988. The museum was founded in 1856 as the Chicago Historical Society and given its current name in 2006. Its collection is very large, amounting to 20 million items. The museum features several permanent exhibits including: "Chicago: Crossroads of America," "Sensing Chicago," "Chicago Authored," and "Lincoln's Chicago," which explores President Abraham Lincoln's political rise in Chicago, his presidency, assassination, and legacy. The museum offers many temporary exhibitions as well.
Fur trader Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable became the first non-Native American resident of the area that is now known as Chicago. DuSable was of African descent and came to the region from the French colony of Saint Domingue (After winning independence from France, the Saint Domingue became known as Haiti). History books have recognized DuSable as the first settler of non-European descent in the area, having established a fur-trading outpost in 1779 when the area was a largely uninhabited swamp. The state of Illinois officially recoginzed DuSable as "the father" of the city of Chicago in 1968. Decades later, Chicago's Haitian-American community raised funds and hired sculptor Erik Blome to create a statue to honor DuSable. The statue was dedicated in 2009 and is one of several landmarks in Chicago that honor the city's founder.
At this very site, the wooden stockade known as Fort Dearborn was constructed in 1803. Fort Dearborn was built on the south side of the Chicago River on top of a small hill overlooking the mouth of the river. The present day intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive marks where the fort once stood. Fort Dearborn was used from 1803 until it was abandoned and burned down in 1812, then rebuilt in 1816 and used until 1857. Fort Dearborn was an American occupied fort that was used during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War of 1832.
The Chicago Fire of 1871 is largely considered the worst disaster in Chicago’s history. Starting on the night of October 8 and finally ending early on October 10, the fire burned out of control and consumed 17,450 buildings over a 3.5-mile swath, took about 300 lives, and caused $200 million in damages (equal to $4.6 billion dollars in 2018). A recent drought over the summer combined with strong southerly winds and a built infrastructure of mostly wood fueled the fire. The cause of the fire has never been determined, but legend has always placed the blame on Mrs. O’Leary’s cow who allegedly kicked over an oil lamp in the barn at 137 DeKoven Street.
Arguably Chicago’s oldest residential house, the building has survived two moves, a fire and decades of tremendous growth. The historic structure now serves as a local history museum that offers exhibits and programs about the early history of the city and influential Chicagoans such as hardware and building magnate Henry Clarke. Like many of Chicago's founding mothers and fathers, the Clarkes arrived a few years prior to Chicago gaining its charter and both promoted and profited from the city's growth. The museum and its architecture also interpret the significance of Greek and Roman architecture found in many of the homes and buildings in and beyond the city.
The Battle of Fort Dearborn was a short and bloody battle fought during the War of 1812, between the Potawatomi tribe and U.S. garrison of the Fort. The Battle occurred on August 15, 1812, near Fort Dearborn, Illinois Territory (in what is now Chicago, Illinois). The result of the battle was an overwhelming victory for the Potawatomi tribe. The victorious Potawatomie burned Fort Dearborn to the ground and the region remained empty of U.S. citizens until after the war had ended.
Camp Douglas was located between 31st Street, 33rd Place, Cottage Grove Ave and Giles Ave on the near-south side of Chicago. The camp operated between 1861 and 1865 receiving and training nearly 40,000 Union soldiers, including African American troops. From 1862 through 1865 the camp also served as a prison camp housing nearly 30,000 Confederate prisoners. Archaeological digs are underway and discovering many of the old structures.
The 96-ft tall tomb that towers over the shore of Lake Michigan is the final resting place of Stephen A. Douglas, famous Illinois politician and rival of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Douglas was a powerful political figure not only in Illinois but in the rest of the United States. His tomb is now an Illinois State Historic Site, as well as a Chicago Landmark and a member of the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can come and see the tomb on weekends from 9 to 5.
While all that remains of the former sprawling stockyard is the former gate, on December 25, 1865, this area began receiving the first of millions of cattle that would be processed and shipped in a centralized facility that would be the largest early example of applying scale and industrial techniques to beef production. Beginning shortly after the Civil War, these Chicago stockyards became the center of the meatpacking industry. The flat land and railroads allowed for the establishment of centralized processing, becoming essential to Chicago's growth. Upton Sinclair's 1906 classic, The Jungle, refers to the stockyards' conditions by the turn of the century. While the stockyards closed in 1971, the former Union Stock Yard gate remains along with a few other buildings and associated landmarks. The gate was constructed about ten years after the stockyards opened.
The "Plymouth Rock" of Chicago the portage was originally utilized by Native Americans. In 1673, Natives revealed the portage to French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. By walking their canoes over this portage, Native Americans had found a way to connect the Great Lakes (which connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River) to the Northern tributaries of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Jolliet recognized that a canal in the portage area would create a vital transportation and trade connection, but it would be nearly two centuries before his vision would be realized. In 1848 the 97-mile Illinois & Michigan Canal connected the Chicago River to the Illinois River.
The Graue Mill and Museum is located in Oak Brook, Illinois. It is a operating waterwheel grist mill and homestead. It was constructed in 1849 by Frederick Graue. Today, the museum provides programs for children to learn what life was like between 1850 ad 1890. The mill was also part of the Underground Railroad.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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This driving tour of the Chicago metropolitan area explores sites related to the history of Native peoples and early settlers of European descent. The tour starts with sites related to Native American history and concludes with the Graue Mill and Museum. The tour also includes a variety of sites related to the early history of Chicago prior to the Great Fire of 1871.
