The Chicago Portage archive is available for download as a single .zip file from here. The archive includes copies of The Chicago Portage Ledger, photographs of the site, and the video "Connected Worlds: The Story of the Chicago Portage.
Furthermore, this December, we are launching a new platform for our unique digital collections.
Please take a moment to preview it and let us know what you think!

 

Connecting Worlds DVD

Friends of the Chicago Portage has produced a 30 minute video about the history and significance of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site: "Connecting Worlds, The Story of the Chicago Portage"
Produced, directed, edited and narrated by Friends of the Chicago Portage's talented Secretary, Mark Maclean, "Connecting Worlds, The Story of the Chicago Portage" explores the reasons why a city of nine million people grew in what began as a prairie marsh.
 
It traces the geological creation of the Portage with facinating animations of the retreat of the glaciers and the formation of the landscape we inhabit.
 
Follow the path of Joliet and Marquette as they discover the Mississippi River and the Chicago Portage in 1673, and see how their "discovery" of the Chicago Portage led to the creation of I&M Canal and the development of our great city.
 
Watch as voyaguers, the truckers of the past, struggle to pass their boats and trade goods through the dreaded Mud Lake and over the Chicago Portage during the fur trade era.
 
Watch as a fur trade era interpreter demonstrates how the voyaguers started a fire.....in 24 seconds!
 
"Connecting Worlds" presents interviews with local historians, interpreters, teachers and authors who explain how the Chicago Portage created Chicago and how the Chicago Portage is still in operation today.
 
Join and/or contribute to Friends of the Chicago Portage to recieve a complementary copy of this DVD.  Friends of the Chicago Portage also gives copies of the DVD to teachers, schools and public libraries for free.

DVD front cover
DVD back cover