Chicago Portage - Mud Lake

Mud Lake

From about 3,000 years ago until the year 1900, the Des Plaines River and the Chicago River were connected in the ancient stream bed of the Chicago Outlet River by a slough or swampy area known as Mud Lake. This remnant was left behind when the water level of Lake Michigan-Huron dropped as the St. Clair River captured the flow of the Chicago Outlet River. Mud Lake could be wet, dry, marshy, or frozen, depending on the season and the weather, making it a difficult, albeit very valuable, transportation route. It was drained in several stages, starting with the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, which bisected it. Several other attempts were made to drain Mud Lake, with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal finally accomplishing this in 1900. A small remnant of Mud Lake still exists as a wetland area in Forest View, between the Stevenson Expressway, railroad tracks, and West 51st Street, near the Forest View water tower. This isolated remnant of Mud Lake has been prevented from draining into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal by the levees of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, the railroad lines, and later the Stevenson Expressway which was built on top of the old I&M Canal in 1964. The rest of Mud Lake is today covered by industrial areas of the City of Chicago.