After a two-year hiatus from presenting lectures about early Chicago, the Chicago Portage and the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, the Friends of the Chicago Portage group has announced the return of its winter programming with four lectures celebrating the 350th anniversary of Jolliet and Marquette's journey of discovery.
All four lectures will begin at 1 p.m. on the last Saturday of January through April, at the Lyons Public Library, 4209 S. Joliet Ave.
• Saturday Jan. 28: Jolliet & Marquette’s Discovery of Chicago,
presented by John Langer and Gary Mechanic.
presented by John Langer and Gary Mechanic.
Rediscover the lives and legacy of the 17th Century French explorer Louis Jolliet and Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette. Friends of the Chicago Portage tour guides John Langer and Gary Mechanic explore the lives and journeys of Jolliet and Marquette and celebrate the 350th anniversary of their epic journey of discovery.
Both men are veteran Friends of the Chicago Portage tour guides. Langer grew up in the area of the Portage, lives in Villa Park and is a local Realtor. Mechanic is the founder of Friends of the Chicago Portage and producer of this lecture series.
• Saturday, February 25: A History of the Chicago Portage,
presented by Benjamin Sells.
presented by Benjamin Sells.
Benjamin Sells, author of the recently published A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads that Made Chicago and Helped Make America, presents the story of how a seven-mile stretch of marshland gave rise to the city of Chicago. From the indigenous people who first used the portage, through the arrival of the Europeans, to the heyday of the fur trade and the nefarious account of Chicago's first murder, learn about one of the most important and neglected places in United States history.
“Benjamin Sells offers a lively and wide-ranging account of the history of the Chicago Portage from the time of the glaciers to the present. He makes it clear that no place is as significant to our understanding the history of this region and that more attention should be given to the Chicago Portage National Historic Site." — Ann Durkin Keating, author of The World of Juliette Kinzie: Chicago Before the Fire
Benjamin Sells is a lawyer, psychotherapist and former mayor of Riverside. He is also a sailing captain and owner of Chicago’s oldest sailing school. He has written nine books and has published articles and essays on psychology, history and cultural affairs. His latest book is Beauty Matters: Civic Lessons from an Olmsted Village.
• Saturday, March 25: Mapping the Chicago Portage: Seventeenth-Century Explorations by Jolliet, Marquette, La Salle and Joutel, presented by Richard Gross.
Gross was moved to write a scholarly paper on past and recent efforts to establish the true location of the Chicago Portage when a local amateur historian, John Swenson, and a podcast by a group of Chicago historians, writers and artists, recently proposed that a route south of Chicago, different from the site recognized by the National Park Service, is the actual Chicago Portage.
Gross asserts that accounts of the 17th century French travelers confirm the 1928 work of Robert Knight and Lucius Zeuch that established the location of the historic portage and served as the foundation for its designation as a National Historic Site by the National Park Service in 1952. Join Gross for a look at this lively debate about the location of Chicago's birthplace.
Gross has been actively involved in researching the history of the explorer Cavalier de La Salle since he was selected to be a member of the "La Salle Expedition II" in 1975. From Aug. 11, 1976 to April 9, 1977 he and 22 other reenactors authentically retraced La Salle's expedition of exploration from Montreal, Canada to the mouth of the Mississippi River in celebration of the U.S. Bicentennial. Using period documents, he has spent many years unraveling the myths and confusion surrounding all aspects of La Salle's activities in the Midwest.
Gross has a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a master's degree in Education with an emphasis in Biology from Roosevelt University. He taught high school biology and chemistry for 20 years.
• Saturday, April 29: The Chicago Portage - A Lasting Gift, presented by Richard Lanyon.
The Chicago Portage is not just history; it still functions as a main vein of Midwest commerce. Local author and historian Richard Lanyon takes us on a journey through the development of a waterway route that includes the Chicago Portage, and connects the Chicago River’s South Branch with the Des Plaines River in Joliet.
Lanyon traces how the portage route was first exploited to build a modest canal and railroads for commercial purposes, then developed into a larger canal to divert city wastewater away from Lake Michigan.
Finally, he explores how the precise location of the ancient subcontinental divide is critical in accounting for the Chicago area’s allowance of Lake Michigan’s water as mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lanyon is a scientist, author of “Building the Canal to Save Chicago”, "West by Southwest to Stickney: Draining the Central Area and Exorcising Clout" and others about the development of Chicago’s waterways. He is also the former Executive Director of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.
Friends of the Chicago Portage promotes the historic interpretation, ecological restoration and appropriate development of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site through volunteer advocacy, public events and other projects that raise public awareness of the site’s history and significance. Portage Woods Forest Preserve is located at 4800 S. Harlem, Lyons.
Friends of the Chicago Portage promotes the historic interpretation, ecological restoration and appropriate development of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site through volunteer advocacy, public events and other projects that raise public awareness of the site’s history and significance. Portage Woods Forest Preserve is located at 4800 S. Harlem, Lyons.
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