Illustration of the Junction of the Chicago River. July 1866 (Artist: Louis Kurz)

Chicago River — This view is of that portion of the river where the two branches unite and form the main river. The drawing is taken from a point on West Water Street, north of the approach to Lake Street Bridge.

It presents a scene hardly equal in animation to what is generally to be seen at that point. On the right are the protections to Lake Street Bridge. On the left is a vessel in tow of a tug coming from the north branch, and in the extreme distance is Wells Street Bridge over the main river. On the north side of the river are the Iowa and other Elevators, and on the south the row of warehouses lying between South Water Street and the river. At the front of the picture may be seen the upper portion of a locomotive upon the track which connects along this line the various Northern and Western with the Southern and Eastern Railways.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Chicago as a Hunting Post.

"It has often been said that Chicago was nothing more than a hunting post in its earliest days. Yet the average Chicagoan has little idea of the type of animals whose habitat was around Chicago and whose skins formed a profitable source of livelihood for many hardy trappers. In fact, nothing could attract pioneers to the bleak and cold Northwest in those days unless it was hunting."

A Wolf Hunt in Chicago in the Early Days.

There are several of these veteran trappers alive today [1897], and they delight in telling stories of their experiences. Jon Phillips, a messenger at the Sheffield Avenue Station, the oldest policeman in the Chicago department, was one of these early trappers. He was a professional huntsman employed by Eastern houses to secure the skins of various animals, which at that time brought even a higher price.

The Chicago Academy of Science, the Matthew Laflin Memorial Building. Businessman and philanthropist Laflin was the primary funder for a new building in Lincoln Park on October 31, 1894.

The Chicago Academy of Science has made some effort to secure the complete list of the animals that found their homes in Northern Illinois.

An Illinois Home Where the Buffalo Roam.

People don't realize that the American buffalo was once among the common animals which could be hunted about Chicago. A curious error prevailed with the early explorers in connection with the buffalo. In the voyages of Père Marquette (Père Marquette, Jacques Marquette or Father Marquette (1637–1675) was a French Jesuit missionary), written by a Frenchman and published in 1681, it appears that Marquette spoke of one district as inhabited by “nations qui ont des chevaux et des chameaux,” or translated means “nations who have horses and camels.” The peculiar appearance of the buffalo undoubtedly gave origin to this error.

The river is also said to have contained what is now known as the American beaver, and many of them were caught in the Calumet region. There were also otters, and black bears were not uncommon. Deer were killed as late as the 1870s in Chicago. Among the other smaller animals were the shot-tailed shrew, the silvery mole, the star-nosed mole, the white and grey wolf, the red and grey fox, brown and black minks, the common skunk, raccoon, opossum, Western fox squirrel, gophers striped and grey, woodchuck or groundhog, the ground rat, and common mouse, prairie mouse, meadow mouse, muskrats, and grey rabbit.

Yea, Yea... I'm a Titmouse!
Small size ● Big attitude

Of the songbirds, there were nine species of thrushes, one specie of bluebirds, three warblers, and one kind of titmouse and chickadees.

Of reptiles, there was a large and various assortment. There were rattlesnakes, copper heads or cottonmouths, spotted adders, king snakes, black snakes, garter snakes, spotted snakes, leather snakes, pilot snakes, grass snakes, hog-nosed snakes, spreading adders, and water snakes galore.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Lost Towns of Illinois - Wabonsia and Kinzie's Addition; Today's Fulton River District of Chicago.

The land just west of the Guarie River [1] and north of Wolf Point was once Wabonsia, Illinois, a separate town from the expanding town of Chicago to the south.

The plat of the area is named "Wabonsia and Kinzie's Addition." It's on the north side of the Chicago River. James Kinzie registered the plat map of Wabonsia with Cook County, State of Illinois, on September 18, 1835.
CLICK THE IMAGE FOR A FULL-SIZE MAP

Appearing on this 1835 plat map of the town of Chicago, Kinzie’s Addition, “Wabobsia,” a sliver of roads and river, was its own separate town. Owned by James Kinzie (Virginia-raised second son of John Kinzie and Margaret McKinzie Kinzie, his first wife). Wabonsia became part of Chicago sometime between the Town of Chicago on August 12, 1833, and the City of Chicago on March 4, 1837. Kinzie Street is named after John Kinzie.

Handwritten notes on the map of Wabonsia

June 17, 1835  }
State of Illinois }
Cook County    } 

This day before me came James Kinzie, personally known and acknowledged himself to be the proprietor of the Town of Wabonsia in Cook County, Illinois, as corrected by a special act of the legislature of the State of Illinois in the year 1835 and personally knows to me as such proprietor. Given under my hand and seal this 28th day of August A.D. 1835. Isaac Harmon J.C. {seal} 

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Recorded September 18th, 1835
Richard J. Hamilton, Recorder of Deeds.

Map of the resurvey of Wabonsia by special act of the legislature in 1835. June 17, 1835. J. Wooley Jr., Surveyor C.C. Ills. (Cook County, Illinois) by Geo. W. Snow, Deputy.

As corrected by a special act of the legislature in 1835 and accepted and adopted by the trustees of the Town of Chicago. August 26, 1835. 

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Recorder of Cook County
State of Illinois }
Cook County    } 

I, William L. Church, Clerk of the Circuit Court, and Ex-officio Recorder in and for said County, in the State aforesaid, do hereby certify that the annexed is a true and correct copy of a certain Map filed in my Office, on the Eighteenth day of September, A.D. 1835. and Recorded in Book № 'H' of Maps on page 62, the party to the same being James Kinzie.

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of our said Court, at Chicago, this tenth day of July, A.D. 1860.

William L. Church.

Clerk of the Circuit Court and Ex-Officio Recorder of Cook County.

Wabonsia was bounded by Jefferson Street to the west and Kinzie Street to the south. The river's north branch did and still does cut northwest, making the third side of this triangular-shaped town. Wabonsia was on a grid, like Chicago, but its grid cut northeast, askew from the town to the south and parallel with the river’s branch.

Every angled street in the plat map, Kane Street, Dunn Street, Cook Street, and Water Street are long gone.

In Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie's (John H. Kinzie's wife) 1856 memoirs “Wau-Bun, the Early Day in the Northwest," she wrote: 

"Early in February 1833, my husband [John H. Kinzie] and Lieutenant Hunter, in company with one or two others, [James Kinzie; Virginia-raised second son of John Kinzie and Margaret McKinzie Kinzie, his first wife, was one of the 'others'] set off on a journey to Chicago. That place had become so much of a town [about fifty inhabitants] that it was necessary for the proprietors of "Kinzie's Addition" to lay out lots and open streets through their property."

The plat was corrected (unknown changes) on June 17, 1835, by surveyor J. Wooley then approved on August 26, 1835, by the State of Illinois, Cook County Recorder of Deeds. This was the beginning of the Town of Wabonsia. 

Wolf Point Tavern, Chicago’s first tavern, was owned by James Kinzie, and Wolf Point was just south of Wabonsia. A few old sketches of the tavern do show a wooden bridge to the north. 

The taverns at Wolf Point, where the north and south branches of the Chicago River merged, were typical of inns of the 1830s. The Wolf Tavern, with a sign, is at the left, while Miller’s Tavern sits on the riverbank at the right.

James Kinzie set aside this town to make it easier to sell the land to Chicago, not because he envisioned a community there.

NOTE: "Wabonsia Avenue" is named for Chief Waubonsie, who was an early 1800s Potawatomi leader and his brother Black Partridge aka Black Pheasant who was also a Potawatomi chieftain. He was very active in relationships between the Potawatomi and Fort Dearborn. Chief Waubonsie, whose name means "early dawn," was known for his peacemaking efforts.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

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[1] Guarie River - The first non-indigenous settler at Wolf Point may have been a trader named Guarie. Writing in 1880, Gurdon Hubbard, who first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818, stated that he had been told of Guarie by Antoine De Champs and Antoine Beson, who had been traversing the Chicago Portage annually since about 1778. Hubbard wrote that De Champs had shown him evidence of a trading house and the remains of a cornfield supposed to have belonged to Guarie. The cornfield was located on the west bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River, a short distance from the forks at what is now Fulton Street; early settlers named the North Branch of the Chicago River the Guarie River or Gary River.