The North Branch of the Chicago River

Our river is like an umbilical cord that ties together and nourishes the string of forest preserves lining its banks. From the Chicago Botanic Gardens south to LaBagh Woods, the river, as Henry Thoreau once put it, “silently traverses the scene, both creating and adorning it”. Many a pioneer settler swam in its clean waters and a Michael Lochner, who died in 1970 at the age of 101, had fond memories of catching a sturgeon in the river in Morton Grove early in the last century.
Man has seriously changed the nature of the stream. A mill dam was built near Dempster Street and another dam below St. Paul picnic grove provided boating recreation for visitors. As our communities grew, many storm sewer outlets released torrents of flood waters into its channel after each rainfall, causing repeated flooding of the flood-plain woodlands drastically changing their ecology. In recent years, with the creation of the deep tunnel under the river from Beckwith Road to the junction with the North Shore Channel, most of these overflows have been greatly reduced.
The river offers visitors a canoe trail from Skokie Lagoons near Glencoe all the way to downtown Chicago. Several small dam and occasional fallen trees and flood debris offer the paddlers a challenge not unlike what they would run into when negotiating a wilderness stream in remote country. The fact that such an opportunity exists in our urban midst with the chance to encounter deer and other animals, unusual birdlife, plant life and scenic vistas in all four seasons of the year, is due to the fact that most of its banks have been protected by our system of forest preserves.
Bill Koenig, head of the forest preserve district’s volunteer program, is looking to establish a river keepers program for our river.
Click here for information on how you can get involved.

New developement on our river.

The Cook County Forest Preserve District had constructed a new boat landing on the North Branch of the Chicago River in Linne Woods just north of Dempster Street. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has a project aimed at developing water trails throughout our six county area. Linne Woods is the terminus of the annual New Years Day float so it is fitting to have a convenient landing placed at the end of the six and one-half mile trip. Unfortunately, it is not useable in its present design.

Click on the picture to see it expanded.