Among The Wildflowers
Exploring The Prairies Of Our Past
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Canal Stories, a series brought to you by the Canal Corridor Association to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Illinois & Michigan Canal and the communities that were shaped by its legacy. Today, we’re traveling back to the glory days of the Illinois prairie, a gorgeous, thriving landscape that captivated travelers, young and old, including one intrepid woman who documented her journey through the Midwest in the mid-1800s. This story was brought to us by Joseph Wheeler, Prairie Archaeologist and Tribal Liaison for the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.
On July 6th, 1840, a New York woman in her 40s, Eliza Steele, boarded a stagecoach in Chicago, bound for Peoria, Illinois. She wasn’t just a traveler, she was a writer, and the Midwest prairie we envision from that time period comes from the description that Eliza wrote in her journal, which, in 1841, became a book entitled, A Summer Journey in The West, which is still available today.
In the second quarter of the 19th century, if you wanted to reach the Mississippi River, as Eliza Steele did, you went from Chicago by stagecoach along Whiskey Point Road, onto Barry Point Road (stopping to change coaches at the Widow Barry’s tavern), and then to Doty’s Tavern, the ford point for the Des Plaines River in modern Riverside.
From there, you journeyed to Lockport and Joliet through Midewin, to reach Lasalle-Peru, where you changed from stagecoach to steamer on the Illinois River, which would eventually flow into the Mississippi.
At dawn on July 7th, 1840, between Joliet and Lockport, a fellow traveler woke Eliza so that she could experience the wonder and surprise of a prairie for the first time. Eliza writes:
“I was started with surprise and delight. I was in the midst of a prairie! A world of grass and flowers stretched around me, rising and falling in gentle undulations, as if an enchanter had struck the ocean swell, and it was at rest forever. Acres of wild flowers of every hue glowed around me, and the sun was arising from the earth where it touched the horizon, was kissing with golden face the meadows green. What a new and wondrous world of beauty! What a magnificent sight! Those glorious ranks of flowers!
We rode thus through a perfect wilderness of sweets, sending forth perfume, and animated with myriads of glittering birds and butterflies.
It was, in fact, a vast garden, over whose perfumed paths, covered with soil as hard as gravel, our carriage rolled through the whole of that summer day. You will scarcely credit the profusion of flowers upon these prairies. We passed whole acres of blossoms all bearing one hue, as purple, perhaps, or masses of yellow or rose, and then again a carpet of every color intermixed, or narrow bands, as if a rainbow had fallen upon the verdant slopes. When the sun flooded this mosaic floor with light, and the summer breeze stirred among their leaves, the iridescent glow was beautiful and wondrous beyond anything I had ever conceived.
The gentle undulating surface of these prairies prevent sameness and add variety to its lights and shades. Occasionally, when a swell is rather higher than the rest, it gives you an extended view over the country, and you may mark a dark green waving line of trees near the distant horizon, which are shading some gentle stream from the sun's shooting rays, and thus, betraying the secret of their silent course. Oak openings also occur, green groves, arranged with the regularity of art, making shady alleys for the heated traveler.
The oasis, or oak openings, upon the prairies are very beautiful. We passed through one this morning. It presented the appearance of a lawn, or park around some gentleman's seat. The trees are generally oak, arranged in pretty clumps or clusters upon the smooth grass… While our carriage wound among these clumps, or through the avenues, it was almost impossible to dispel the illusion that we were not driving through the domain of some rich proprietor, and we almost expected to draw up before the door of some lordly mansion.”
This detailed description holds great historical value for many scholars and nature-enthusiasts today, including the dedicated staff at the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. They look to Eliza’s writings as inspiration for their restoration efforts as they seek to reclaim land that was once overrun with munitions factories and abandoned ammunitions bunkers and transform it into a 20,283 acre pristine tallgrass prairie that can be enjoyed for generations to come.
That concludes today’s Canal Story. Thank you so much for joining us as we continue our journey through the history of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, pass it along to your family and friends, leave a like or a comment, and we’ll see you again very soon.
To learn more about the journey of Eliza Steele, grab a copy of her book, A Summer’s Journey In The West, available here: https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Journey-West-Classic-Reprint/dp/1330953967