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JOLIET PUBLIC LIBRARY
I&M Canal

"Louis Jolliet saw an opportunity to connect the Chicago and Des Plaines rivers, providing an uninterrupted route to the sea. He wrote that if a short canal of but 'half a league of prairie' were dug through the portage, one could travel from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico entirely by boat". (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Illinois & Michigan Canal: National Heritage Corridor)


Welcome to the Joliet Public Library Illinois & Michigan Canal website. Please take some time to look around at some of our great images.
  • This project has been funded in part by an I&M Canal Sesquicentennial Grant made possible through a special appropriation from the State of Illinois to the Canal Corridor Association.
  • Many of these images were scanned in from the Lewis University Canal and Regional History Collection (Many thanks!)
  • All of the postcards were scanned in from the Joliet Public Library Archives. All of the interesting quotes come from the Joliet Public Library Vertical File. Feel free to stop by the library and explore our resources.


Click on the thumbnails to the right to view larger images.

 

Illinois & Michigan Canal Timeline

Illinois & Michigan Canal Links

 
Facing west across the river. 1890s

River and Canal above Ruby St. Bridge David Oliver Oat Meal Mill Working on the I+M Canal

Opening of the Jackson St. Bridge 1932 I+M Canal Postcards

Hiram B. Scutt House today.Hiram B. Scutt House 1890s. Dredge Boat 1895

Removing the guard lock at above Jefferson St. in 1899. After the removal of the guard lock at Joliet Jefferson St. 1900.

West over river at Bluff & Spring. Site of first Brewery. Belz & Earhard. 1838. I+M Canal Cartoon by Albert Tolf. Joliet Herald News 5 November 1954. South East over Cass Street bridge and the Canal
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Updated May 2005, LaE