Des Plaines River once vital to life, livelihoods

For most commuters traveling across Lake County, the Des Plaines River gets nary a glance. Much of the view is obscured by its tree-lined shores or bridges. These days the river only seems important to wildlife or the canoe enthusiasts and fishermen that use it. Unless it floods its banks, of course, then we are reminded of its existence.

There was a time when the river was greatly valued as a natural highway utilized by native peoples, European explorers and fur traders.

The Des Plaines River is the longest stream in the Chicago region. The river combines with the Kankakee, southwest of Joliet, to create the Illinois River, a major tributary of the Mississippi. This connection makes the Des Plaines River a principal water route from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi.

In 1673, Jacques Marquette, a 27-year old Jesuit priest, and 35-year old French trader Louis Joliet traversed the Des Plaines River as a shortcut on their voyage. Their journey set out to discover a water route from the Great Lakes to Asia, not realizing that an entire continent and the Pacific Ocean separated them from Asia.

Although the native tribes called the river She-shik-ma-o-shikke for the sap flowing trees along its banks, Marquette referred to the river as the "river of portage." Some claim that the explorers landed at the mouth of the Dead River in what is now the Illinois State Beach Park in Zion.

The Des Plaines River was an important source of beaver pelts and played a major role in the fur trade that thrived from about 1680 to 1820. In the 1830s, the first non-native settlers began settling along the river in Half Day, Libertyville and Gurnee. The river provided fresh water and an abundance of game, which the settlers eventually over-hunted.

Urban development increased the river's tendency to overflow its banks, and inhibit natural drainage. Protection of the river valley began in 1958 with the creation of flood control areas, preservation of natural habitat and recreational areas. More than 7,800 acres have been preserved in the Lake County Forest Preserves' Des Plaines River Greenway. This preservation of 85 percent of the land bordering the river in Lake County has eased flooding problems and allowed for the variety of wildlife to increase again.

The Greenway's 31-mile trail spans nearly the entire length of Lake County, following the river's edge from Russell Road in Wadsworth to West Riverside Drive in Lincolnshire.