Illinois and Michigan Canal Parkways System

Early state efforts to renovate the Illinois & Michigan Canal after its commercial closure.

From the National Park Service – “The 96-mile hand-dug Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848 to connect the American heartland to New York Harbor and New Orleans. The canal was carved through a glacial passageway and used by migratory birds, Native Americans, French fur traders, nineteenth-century pioneers, canal traders, and modern shipping industries…The I & M canal reached its peak influence in the second half of the 19th century. In 1853, railroads began to parallel its path and new water highways were developed in the early 1900s. The canal was soon replaced by the bigger water highways and officially closed to commerce in 1933.”

Just a few years later, in 1938, the Illinois State Planning Commission issued a series of proposals as part of New Deal conservation efforts to overhaul the state’s recreational facilities – one of which was the transformation of the I&M Canal lands into a connected series of parks and parkways.

This map was issued as part of the final report and it provides a high-level overview of the constituent features, which stretched from Chicago to Peru, Illinois. A series of state parks, forest preserves, and private parks paralleling the canal are linked with gravel roads and paved highways. A nostalgic vignette of the all-important towpath reflects on the pedestrian history of the I&M. Today, the Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail implements several of the proposed elements.