Where is the Canal Today?
"In the late 1950s, the State of Illinois considered selling canal lands to raise revenues, but citizen opposition prevented this course of action. [Instead] A sixty-one-mile Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail was set up by 1974, and citizen support led to federal efforts to protect and enhance the Canal Corridor’s cultural and natural resources. Thus was born the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Historic Corridor.”
-David Solzman
-David Solzman
The National Heritage Corridor
"The Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor (IMCNHC) is an outdoor museum where visitors can explore the diverse stories of this living landscape. It’s a place to walk in the footsteps of Native Americans, French Explorers and Voyagers, canal workers and immigrants. It’s a place to discover why the I&M Canal led to Illinois becoming the nation’s most populous inland state and Chicago the greatest city of the American heartland."
-National Heritage Corridor Website |
"Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor along the pathway of the canal.... The idea is not to create a national park, but a diversified recreational, natural, commercial and industrial area to maintain the pathway the canal created and turn it to new uses." -Professor J.M. Lamb |
From National Highway to National Treasure
A "Full Circle" in History
"A portion of the canal was paved over in the 1960s to form a part of the Stevenson Expressway, and in 1963 the canal became a National Historic Landmark. By 1984 the canal became the focal point of the nation’s first national heritage corridor. The old towpath has been converted to a hiking and biking trail, attracting thousands of visitors each year. And plans are afoot to build and float a replica packet boat at Lock 14 in LaSalle, so that people can once again experience a sense of what it was like to ride an I&M Canal packet. This would bring the I&M Canal full circle from its origins over 150 years ago."
-Along the I&M Canal
-Along the I&M Canal