What do you think?
Rate this book
The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History
The story of the making and perpetual remaking of the Chicago River by everything from preglacial forces to the interventions of an emerging and mighty city is encompassed in this intimate biography of the heroic body of water. The book discusses how when French explorers Jolliet and Marquette used the Chicago portage to access the Mississippi River system, the Chicago River was but a humble, even sluggish, stream in the right place at the right time. American Regional History Publishing Award - 1st Place - Midwest Region
Midwest Independent Publishers Association Merit Award - 2nd Place - History
One of ten "outstanding nominations" for the Abel Wolman Award for the best new book in the field of public works history Used and abused. Straightened and channelized. Reversed and revered. But never ignored... An Intimate Biography of the Heroic Creek that Chicago Made When French explorers Jolliet and Marquette used the Chicago portage to access the Mississippi River system, the Chicago River was but a humble, even sluggish, stream in the right place at the right time. That's the story of the making of Chicago. This is the other story--the story of the making and perpetual re-making of a river by everything from pre-glacial forces to the interventions of an emerging and mighty city.
Midwest Independent Publishers Association Merit Award - 2nd Place - History
One of ten "outstanding nominations" for the Abel Wolman Award for the best new book in the field of public works history Used and abused. Straightened and channelized. Reversed and revered. But never ignored... An Intimate Biography of the Heroic Creek that Chicago Made When French explorers Jolliet and Marquette used the Chicago portage to access the Mississippi River system, the Chicago River was but a humble, even sluggish, stream in the right place at the right time. That's the story of the making of Chicago. This is the other story--the story of the making and perpetual re-making of a river by everything from pre-glacial forces to the interventions of an emerging and mighty city.
303 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
16 people are currently reading
271 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 21, 2021
This book definitely has an academic feel – heavily researched, a little dry, history minutia aplenty, and arcane engineering terms – and I LOVED it! It makes me long to go back to Chicago to view the city from the aspect of the rivers outward, rather than the lake inward. I realize now that is exactly how I’ve approached my previous visits to the city.
The history of man’s influence on the river and the river’s influence on the city are brought to life. The struggle of man over nature winds from early efforts to portage Mud Lake, to modern billion dollar sewer and tunnel systems required to sustain a population of millions. Through it all we see innovations in technology, changing attitudes towards the environment, and the ever-persistent fear of the rivers in terms of flood, disease, and the impacts to livelihoods. The river can take your income, your home, and even your life, and so the battle of bending the river to the will of man is fixed. The result is the astonishing ability to reverse a river and leap a sub-continental divide. Let that sink in.
The chronicling of the Chicago River’s battle against aquatic nuisance species (a new term for me) reminds me of the children’s book “The King, the Mice and the Cheese” by Nancy and Eric Gurney. Just when you think you have found a predator/prey solution to an invasive aquatic plant or fish, you realize you have introduced a potential larger problem. Creative solutions to the invasive carp species are discussed, all of which lead back to political wars with a variety of groups, states, and the federal government, resulting in “multiple agencies, a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms” working on the problem.
What might seem incomprehensible to some, even after the fairly thorough history here, is the congressional, federal agency, state, local, and judicial conflicts, proceedings, and decisions surrounding this watershed. I stopped counting the number of Illinois Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court cases that were involved somewhere in the 1800’s. Almost every historical ‘improvement’ involved conflicting opinions with long periods of time to resolve and even longer intervals to implement agreed upon measures. This becomes, then, almost a tale of government contracting and the intricate and confounding world that it creates. These aspects tickled me the most! It also may influence one to the belief that if you must have an agency involved in your local watershed, you are much better off with the National Park Service than the war department and its successors. Safe harbors are important, but the far-reaching power that laws such as this exert upstream, and the nebulous federal definition of ‘navigable’, make me nervous.
Referring to one contractor that has been in business in the Cook and Lake Counties area since the 1890’s, Hill states, “Having been in business for so long, it is not surprising that some of their current restoration projects are undoing work performed by their company a century ago.” This resonates, because in the fast-paced information technology federal contracting world, a company may be paid to undo work done only a decade ago, as administration directives and technology advancements shift relentlessly.
The theme of adapting and developing technology to impact the Chicago River’s course was evident in all stages of the river’s manipulation. Hill deadpans, “But it was one thing for the government to approve a project and quite another to accomplish it.” She also identifies (one almost thinks with glee) understatements on such government contracting work from historical sources. From an order to the supervisor in charge of the harbor redesign: “There is a probability of your meeting with some difficulty in the prosecution of your operations.” Yes, changing the sand bars against the currents of Lake Michigan did prove a tad difficult! Even better, she quotes Chicago historian Alfred T. Andreas: “But although the Legislature had ‘authorized’ the finishing of the canal on the ‘shallow-cut’ plan, it could not decree that water should run uphill.” Oh, what a lesson for all current legislative bodies!
The history of man’s influence on the river and the river’s influence on the city are brought to life. The struggle of man over nature winds from early efforts to portage Mud Lake, to modern billion dollar sewer and tunnel systems required to sustain a population of millions. Through it all we see innovations in technology, changing attitudes towards the environment, and the ever-persistent fear of the rivers in terms of flood, disease, and the impacts to livelihoods. The river can take your income, your home, and even your life, and so the battle of bending the river to the will of man is fixed. The result is the astonishing ability to reverse a river and leap a sub-continental divide. Let that sink in.
The chronicling of the Chicago River’s battle against aquatic nuisance species (a new term for me) reminds me of the children’s book “The King, the Mice and the Cheese” by Nancy and Eric Gurney. Just when you think you have found a predator/prey solution to an invasive aquatic plant or fish, you realize you have introduced a potential larger problem. Creative solutions to the invasive carp species are discussed, all of which lead back to political wars with a variety of groups, states, and the federal government, resulting in “multiple agencies, a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms” working on the problem.
What might seem incomprehensible to some, even after the fairly thorough history here, is the congressional, federal agency, state, local, and judicial conflicts, proceedings, and decisions surrounding this watershed. I stopped counting the number of Illinois Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court cases that were involved somewhere in the 1800’s. Almost every historical ‘improvement’ involved conflicting opinions with long periods of time to resolve and even longer intervals to implement agreed upon measures. This becomes, then, almost a tale of government contracting and the intricate and confounding world that it creates. These aspects tickled me the most! It also may influence one to the belief that if you must have an agency involved in your local watershed, you are much better off with the National Park Service than the war department and its successors. Safe harbors are important, but the far-reaching power that laws such as this exert upstream, and the nebulous federal definition of ‘navigable’, make me nervous.
Referring to one contractor that has been in business in the Cook and Lake Counties area since the 1890’s, Hill states, “Having been in business for so long, it is not surprising that some of their current restoration projects are undoing work performed by their company a century ago.” This resonates, because in the fast-paced information technology federal contracting world, a company may be paid to undo work done only a decade ago, as administration directives and technology advancements shift relentlessly.
The theme of adapting and developing technology to impact the Chicago River’s course was evident in all stages of the river’s manipulation. Hill deadpans, “But it was one thing for the government to approve a project and quite another to accomplish it.” She also identifies (one almost thinks with glee) understatements on such government contracting work from historical sources. From an order to the supervisor in charge of the harbor redesign: “There is a probability of your meeting with some difficulty in the prosecution of your operations.” Yes, changing the sand bars against the currents of Lake Michigan did prove a tad difficult! Even better, she quotes Chicago historian Alfred T. Andreas: “But although the Legislature had ‘authorized’ the finishing of the canal on the ‘shallow-cut’ plan, it could not decree that water should run uphill.” Oh, what a lesson for all current legislative bodies!
December 31, 2024
A bit of a slog but full of interesting history and information about something that I see almost every day.
June 16, 2015
Very very thorough. And very very dry. Ironic, considering this is a book about a river and its watershed. I only read this (or most of it) for work. It kinda sorta helped me understand the history of the Chicago River better, but only when I was able to keep my eyes open long enough to read more than one or two paragraphs without falling asleep.
February 21, 2017
This is clearly a local interest book. Having grown up in Chicago, I found it fascinating, but someone from elsewhere would likely fall asleep. I actually thought about this book yesterday wading through mud in Lake County and it was nice to know the history (that this area was all mud / swamp at one time). Recommend for locals - not so much for others.
September 24, 2020
To understand the City of Chicago, it is necessary to understand the history of its relationship to and reliance upon the Chicago River. Libby Hill's account of this dynamic feedback loop is both thorough and fascinating as she demonstrates how the geology and geography of the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers largely determined the location and history of the city of Chicago up through the first decades of the 21st century.
She traces how, millions of years ago, the bedrock formation upon which the Great Lakes lie was created, along with the divide between what would become the Chicago and Des Plaines watersheds. The retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier 14,000 years ago then led to the formation of both the Great Lakes and the rivers that flow into them. Indigenous cultures settled the southwest corner of Lake Michigan for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers and traders in the 18th century.
The attraction of this location's geography to them was the short (less than two mile) portage between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. The primary obstacle in this portage was a slough called Mud Lake. Overcoming this obstacle and assuring the smooth flow of trade westward to St. Louis and beyond became a major factor in the growth of the city and, in turn, its influence on the river, beginning with the establishment of a farm by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in 1784 and the building of Fort Dearborn in 1803.
The engineering history of decades of building various ditches and canals to both divert and utilize the waterways of the Chicago River is a major part of the book, which also discusses the engineering of major construction projects such as raising the city eight feet above the river to accommodate sewers and flooding. Hill also devotes herself to showing the ecological consequences of these projects, which, over the years, turned the river into an open sewer, followed by efforts to undo the damage, restore the quality of the water, and provide recreational activities such as kayaking and the Riverwalk.
While I found some of the history a bit tedious, my overall appreciation for what I was learning about the city/river nexus made this book well worth reading.
She traces how, millions of years ago, the bedrock formation upon which the Great Lakes lie was created, along with the divide between what would become the Chicago and Des Plaines watersheds. The retreat of the Wisconsin Glacier 14,000 years ago then led to the formation of both the Great Lakes and the rivers that flow into them. Indigenous cultures settled the southwest corner of Lake Michigan for thousands of years before the arrival of European explorers and traders in the 18th century.
The attraction of this location's geography to them was the short (less than two mile) portage between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers. The primary obstacle in this portage was a slough called Mud Lake. Overcoming this obstacle and assuring the smooth flow of trade westward to St. Louis and beyond became a major factor in the growth of the city and, in turn, its influence on the river, beginning with the establishment of a farm by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in 1784 and the building of Fort Dearborn in 1803.
The engineering history of decades of building various ditches and canals to both divert and utilize the waterways of the Chicago River is a major part of the book, which also discusses the engineering of major construction projects such as raising the city eight feet above the river to accommodate sewers and flooding. Hill also devotes herself to showing the ecological consequences of these projects, which, over the years, turned the river into an open sewer, followed by efforts to undo the damage, restore the quality of the water, and provide recreational activities such as kayaking and the Riverwalk.
While I found some of the history a bit tedious, my overall appreciation for what I was learning about the city/river nexus made this book well worth reading.
November 2, 2019
Well written book. Definitely compelling inside baseball for those who are interested in Chicago history. Topography in general and the waterways in particular are not readily apparent in day to day life in Chicago. Yet the proximity of the continental divide (approximately at Kedzie and 31st) to the lake is the major reason Chicago is where it is. The book provides excellent detail about the development and transformation of the waterways throughout the region, including recent and ongoing efforts. It gives me a new perspective on the city; I find myself looking at the River and other watershed features with renewed interest.
July 21, 2021
(remember I grade on a curve, and I enjoy most of what I read)
This one is for the local U. Chicago book club, but it was my suggestion before that.
I feel edified for reading this tale of the geology, social history, politics, and more behind the reversal of the Chicago River, which was my goal. However, it was a slog for the first 200,000,000 years and the reversal was only a small part of the history.
But it was an intellectual thrill, not a visceral one for the read. It assumes a ton of Chicago geography knowledge, which I guess I lost after 4 years living there. But it is authoritative and empassionned, if a difficult subject.
This one is for the local U. Chicago book club, but it was my suggestion before that.
I feel edified for reading this tale of the geology, social history, politics, and more behind the reversal of the Chicago River, which was my goal. However, it was a slog for the first 200,000,000 years and the reversal was only a small part of the history.
But it was an intellectual thrill, not a visceral one for the read. It assumes a ton of Chicago geography knowledge, which I guess I lost after 4 years living there. But it is authoritative and empassionned, if a difficult subject.
December 5, 2018
Some of it is very interesting but there is too much talk about sewage, which I get is at the heart of the river but I also got the point rather quickly. I would have liked to understand the environmental impacts, social, and physical. It does a good job w the last one but I felt the other two were touched on only briefly. The true engineering efforts were not described in detail - like how did they do some of this engineering in the 19th and early 20th century.
But I do feel more knowledgeable and I know some cool stories about Chicago and it’s etymology.
But I do feel more knowledgeable and I know some cool stories about Chicago and it’s etymology.
June 10, 2021
Reads somewhat like a dense essay, but not as dense as other books about the river. Marketed as for the general reader but it definitely helps to already have an understanding of & passion for Chicago locations/history. Would definitely recommend this as a textbook for a class & would recommend to people highly interested in the river. Lots of facts and some nice pictures of the river. Overall a very informative book that goes through the whole history of the Chicago River from pre-settlement to now.
August 31, 2024
Wow! This book is an impressive accounting of the Chicago River. The author, Libby Hill, asks, "Who did what to the Chicago River, when, how and why; and what were the consequences?" And then she answers those questions very thoroughly going all the way back to Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette and even before them. As a life-long Chicagoan I was mostly at least somewhat familiar with the river's history. I really enjoyed reading about places and events that I already thought I knew only to learn more.
July 21, 2021
She combines Chicago’s management of its sewage, rainwaters, rivers and canals in glorious (occasionally a little tedious) detail. The references are of greatest interest to those who have lived 20 or more years in Chicago, but that is quite a few of us. She has many facts, historical and current, that are of great interest, and lots of maps.
September 1, 2024
You will definitely need a map to follow along.
Lots of specific locations are mentioned throughout the book.
There is a lot about of engineering and politics.
I was expecting a bit more natural/historical/scientific aspects which there definitely was. But huge chunks were engineering. It is part of history so it's ok.
Definitely very thorough. So it deserves a high rating
Lots of specific locations are mentioned throughout the book.
There is a lot about of engineering and politics.
I was expecting a bit more natural/historical/scientific aspects which there definitely was. But huge chunks were engineering. It is part of history so it's ok.
Definitely very thorough. So it deserves a high rating
July 4, 2024
The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History is a scholarly book printed by Southern Illinois University Press. Even though it’s a dense well researched book, it’s fascinating reading. I highly recommend it to any Chicagoan, suburbanite, historian, or is interested in water or politics.
July 22, 2017
I love this book. Ms. Hill has put so much into this book that it is truly satisfying. It is one of my favorite books. I keep going back to it.
Thank you for writing this!
Thank you for writing this!
March 22, 2015
As promised, this is a comprehensive history of the Chicago River, taking it from its meandering origins in the muck left behind by retreating glaciers to the increasingly constrained path it takes today. Overall, the book provides a fascinating look at how the waterway spurred the development of Chicago. Its "hop, skip and a jump" of a portage from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi spurred dreams of trade and profit.
Author Libby Hill is thorough in exploring the different facets of the Chicago River, even if she can get a bit caught up in her own language at times. I was most interested in the natural history of the river and the experiences of the native Americans and earlier traders before the waterway was improved. The pace of development along this swampy marshland is hard to believe!
As the story progresses and more parties gain interest in manipulating the river, the narrative becomes a bit more muddled. The story even seems to repeat a bit with the creation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Sanitary and Ship Canal. Obviously there are similarities in the processes, but the different eras aren't rendered distinct.
By the time we hit the 20th century, the book gets pretty thick with acronyms and agencies. That does reflect the reality of the river in our modern age, but it can be a bit of a slog to work through. Still, Hill does admirable work keeping the developments comprehensible, and it's nice to see the river shift back a bit toward conservation--and appreciation--as our story ends.
Author Libby Hill is thorough in exploring the different facets of the Chicago River, even if she can get a bit caught up in her own language at times. I was most interested in the natural history of the river and the experiences of the native Americans and earlier traders before the waterway was improved. The pace of development along this swampy marshland is hard to believe!
As the story progresses and more parties gain interest in manipulating the river, the narrative becomes a bit more muddled. The story even seems to repeat a bit with the creation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Sanitary and Ship Canal. Obviously there are similarities in the processes, but the different eras aren't rendered distinct.
By the time we hit the 20th century, the book gets pretty thick with acronyms and agencies. That does reflect the reality of the river in our modern age, but it can be a bit of a slog to work through. Still, Hill does admirable work keeping the developments comprehensible, and it's nice to see the river shift back a bit toward conservation--and appreciation--as our story ends.
Want to read
September 1, 2008I have been interested in the engineering feat that is the Chicago River's direction of flow. We all know it was reversed but how did they do that? And what maverick just decided THAT was how they would solved the problems? This book is a book foundation for my obsession but I'm still on the look out for a book that is ONLY about the reversal process. I'm currently reading this so I'll update this once I finish.
July 3, 2007
Chicago's streets were raised up to make a sewer system.
The Chicago River had it's flow reverse to take sewage away from the city.
And yet, Chicago is still full of shit.
The Chicago River had it's flow reverse to take sewage away from the city.
And yet, Chicago is still full of shit.
September 8, 2007
I was shocked that no one had thought of putting together a book like this until this author came along... but it's really not THAT interesting of a read.
August 23, 2009
Although the writing's a little dry, overall a nice, informative read. Definitely a good book for a commute on the way to-and-fro work.
March 16, 2016
Beuracracy and water, a decent nonfiction book. It can get diffucult to remember all the abreviations though.
November 19, 2015
Recommended for anyone living in the region or folks who really like rivers.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews