Section D · The Timeline
The Eras
Five chapters of Illinois Valley history. The Native frontier, the canal, the industrial boom, the disasters, and the casinos.
Chapter 1 · 1 place on file
Pre-1700
Marquette and Jolliet on the Illinois River, 1673. Henri Tonti finishes Fort St. Louis on top of Starved Rock in 1683 on La Salle's orders.
Read this era →Chapter 2 · 0 places on file
1700–1850
The Pontiac siege legend (~1769). The I&M Canal opens in 1848. Daniel Hitt buys Starved Rock from the federal government for eighty-five dollars.
Read this era →Chapter 3 · 5 places on file
1850–1900
Two German immigrants open a zinc smelter in 1858. Westclox is reorganized in 1888. John Hossack yells 'If you want your liberty, come!' across an Ottawa courtroom in 1860.
Read this era →Chapter 4 · 3 places on file
1900–1933
November 13, 1909 — 259 dead in Cherry. The Hotel Kaskaskia opens in 1915. Big Ben is on every Saturday Evening Post cover. Prohibition runs the speakeasies underground.
Read this era →Chapter 5 · 3 places on file
1933–1953
Tom Cawley's twenty-year run on First Street. Sixty saloons. A dozen casinos. Donald O'Connor on the bandstand. Harland Warren times his raid for the Saturday before Washington's Birthday, 1953.
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